When Strangers Meet
by Neohowler
Summary: An SMCCS xover. Li is sent to Tokyo after he and Sakura part ways, to deal with a new threat that seems to be targeting the scouts.
1. chapter 1

When Strangers Meet Disc: I don't own CCS or SM. They're all respectively borrowed into my NON-PROFITABLE writing. This is only for the enjoyment of the readers.  
  
  
  


'''''  
( ' ' )  
________oOOo____^____oOOo________  


When Strangers Meet  
By  
Neohowler

  
  
  
  
chapter 1 

Syaoran thought seethingly(is this even a word?) to himself as he stared out into night sky of Juuban. All was quiet tonight, which was recently a rare event. There had been reports of high level magic usage and glimpses of monsters.

_Future leader of the Li clan and I get stuck monster hunting_ Li said to himself, despite the fact that he had willingly volunteered for this work. _What other fourteen year old chinese boy goes away from home to a foreign country, just to check out strange magic readings? I'll tell you how many others...none! A few girls maybe...but never another guy!_

Syaoran had searched the deserted streets, save for a few people, for almost six hours straight and hadn't ran into any sign of trouble. Dressed in his traditional cardcaptor attire, which consisted of a green chinese battle robe over a white longsleeve shirt, pants, along with a funny looking green hat that matches the robe, that was specifically designed for him several years ago. Syaoran continued to hop from roof top to roof top, heading in the one direction he had wanted to go since the moon came up...home. Atleast his temporary home until he gets back to China.

  


In a rather expensive and very good looking house in the more...'better' neighborhood of Juuban, a young girl with shoulder length satin black hair and the most loneliest violet eyes you'll ever see, stares longingly outside her window room. She, like all children, had wishes and dreams. At the moment, she was making a wish. A repeated event that she had been doing since she could remember. However, unlike most children, this certain girl didn't wish for things to make her special. Just exactly the opposite.

"I wish I was like everyone," she sighed as she stared off into the lake of stars. "Even the rest of the senshi are normal except for me..."

Now, one may ask why the child may want to be normal. For starters, normal children, especially that of a twelve year old, can't heal wounds with just her bare hands better than a surgeon. Normal children do not seem to have seizures when they over exert themselves. Normal children DON'T over exert themselves after just running a quarter of a lap around the school track. But hey, thats just for starters. Of course those who're more advance in this subject could point out more, but we won't go into details.

Tomoe Hotaru is far from you average child. Other than the facts just described, she's also Sailor Saturn of the Outer Scouts. The MOST powerful of all the scouts...COMBINED! Tomoe Hotaru could literally destroy an entire planet if she wanted to...of course the amount of power needed to do this will also kill her as well. But the fact remains that she does have the ability to do so if she desire. Fortunately, Tomoe Hotaru doesn't wish to the destroy the world...anymore that is.

Thinking about how different her life would've been if she'd just been like all the other children at ther school, Hotaru failed to see a oddly dressed figure leap over the gates of a the house neighboring the one she was living in. If she had, she would've noticed that the figure was actually a boy. With the full moon's light, Hotaru would've saw that the boy was dressed in chinese garments and carrying a shealthed sword on their back. If she'd kept staring, perhaps Hotaru would've realized that the boy was able to jump onto a chosen balcony which had a glass sliding door, which was left opened. Which wouldn't have matter much, except that the balcony on the second floor!

Hotaru did notice, however, that one of the rooms' light came on. Hotaru turned all her attention to the house. She was curious because of two reasons. One, the house was said to belong to a powerful family in China. Two, the house was said to be hunted by some kind of ghost of the previous occupant, who had died a little over ten years ago. Of course she didn't believe the latter, however, the first maybe true. If it was, the person could be really important.

For a moment, Hotaru felt a giddy rush ran through her. _I hope they have kids! Especially around my age. _ She dropped the thought when Hotaru realized another fact. _Everyone has probably 'warn' them about the witch that lives here. I wish that I had a friend...with Chibi-Usa gone, I don't really have any friends my age. _

Deep in her own little world of sad thoughts, Hotaru walks away from the window cill and climbs into her bed. She hesitantly looks around the room for a moment, half-expecting her father to come in and tuck her in and half- expecting her foster parents to enter and do it. Unfortunately, Hotaru's father had 'disappeared' several months ago and her foster parents, who just happened to the be the respected Sailor Senshi Uranus and Neptune, were out tonight. So she was alone, again.

_Good night...Otousan...good night Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama..._ Hotaru let out a yawn and turn to her side to look out the window again. She let her mind wander around in lost thoughts for awhile before she started to notice that she was getting tire. _Good night new neighbor...I hope we can be friends._

With her last lonesome thought, the little firefly of the house quickly drifted into the worlds of dream, leaving behind her reality of loneliness and tragedy. Entering a world of childly bliss and innocence. A place, that she had confide too many times in the past.

  


Li Syaoran finally made it to his stationed home. He was suprised that his father had owned such a house. Since his last home-away-from-home happened to be an apartment, he thought that he would have to stay another one once more. However, he was shocked when he learned that he would be staying at the house that his father had bought while on one of his 'business trips' in Japan. What surprised him even more was that the place was practically a mansion. Of course it wasn't even a quarter of the Li family Estate in China, however, it was in a neighborhood that was evident that one had to had a substantial amount of income to afford.

Granted that Syaoran got a monthly allowance for food and other necessities. Syaoran just never imagined his father to own such a...place like this. It had four LARGE rooms. Along with two bathroom one up stairs and two down stairs. A dinning room with a seperate kitchen/cooking area. A family room and a living room. Also, there was an armoury room int the basement that had belong to his father as well. His father seemed to had been quite the expert when it came to the history of wars and outbreaks on Earth. It also appeared that Li Lang(I just made up a name for his father. Since Lang means wolf, Xiao Lang means little wolf.) was quite a scholar and expert in the field of magic. There was also a library next to the armoury that consisted of books that not even the Li Family library didn't have.

Of course, at the moment, Syaoran was all but ecstatic to find out what great wonders the mysterious books held. He was physically and magically exhausted. He had been using magic to increase his senses, strength, speed, agility, and awareness to the max for the last six hours. During that he had run almost non-stop around Juuban as well, making several rounds and passes over areas that had consisted of more monsters sightings and attacks. On top of that, Syaoran had also kept up a guise shield so no one could recognize him if someone just happen to spot a young boy running on top of buildings to buildings in the middle of the night. Not to mention he had had his magic sensors on HIGH for the whole day.

Syaoran conjure up a mage light, basically a sphere for light the size of a basketball, which literally lit up the whole room. Too tired to even bother with physically getting out of his 'night' clothes, Syaoran simply snapped his fingers. There was no flash of light or display of fireworks. His chinese garment simply faded off of him and reappeared onto a chair next to the desk on the far side of the room. Shedding of his 'night' clothes, Syaoran was left with nothing on except his black boxers and green tang top. Syaoran stumbled over to the nice fluffy bed that seemed to become even more inviting with each step he took. The moment that he was right over the bed, Syaoran simply collapsed and started to drift off to sleep.

"Achoo!" Syaoran sneezed just before he was about to drift of into total darkness. _Who can be talking about me at this hour of the night!_

As soon as Syaoran's thought finished, the mage light simply faded out and the light of the moon, was the only thing left that lit up the now almost dark room.

  


As usual, Syaoran woke up, almost instinctively, at five in the morning, just in time to turn off his alarm clock._ I don't know why I bother to set the alarm anyway,_ Syaoran thought to himself as he groaned, pushing away the sea of sheets and, literally, hopped out of bed. _I get up at five no matter how late I get home at night anyway. Oh well, better get started._

After his normal mental morning battle with himself, Syaoran proceeded onto the balcony. Stepping outside of the glass slide door, which he left open last night, Syaoran immediately leapt into the cool morning air and did a few flips in mid-air. After landing on the other side of the rather spacious balcony, Syaoran did a few quick stretches and cardio-warm up exercises. Followed by a hundred push ups and sit ups, a routine that he had been able to follow even during his sickest days. After thirty minutes, Syaoran started doing his wu shu katas.

_How come I do this anyway,_ Syaoran thought to himself as he flowed through his katas with flowing grace that would make a ballarina seem like a stumbling idiot. _I know all the moves by heart. I can just magically increase my strength. Learning how to handle magic already gives me a washboard stomach and muscles a normal fourteen year old shouldn't have. Nothing short of a the dash card can out run me. I can give the Jump Card a run for its money, as well as the Fight Card. Why do I bother doing this everymorning? I'll never know. Habit I guess..._

And so, Syaoran continue his normal morning thoughts as he unconciously continue to flow through his morning exercise.

  


Haruka and Michiru had return home late that night. So, obviously, unless Hotaru got up and made herself her own lunch, she was going to be late for school. Which isn't good since this was going to be her first day of her final year at Mugen Academy. She wanted to finish her final year there and get as far away from all her classmates as she can. Its not that Hotaru had anything against all of them. Its just the direct opposite.

Her so call 'curse' makes her an outcast from everyone else. Not to mention the bottom of several jokes as well. Though no one had ever confronted her directly, yet, she has overheard many of them talking when they thought she wasn't listening. She knew very well of what almost the entire school thought about her. Some crazy witch that will turn you into a frog if you get her mad at you.

_Sometimes I wish I can just do that too,_ Hotaru giggled as she imagine herself transforming all the school bullies into toads. Hotaru started to hum a tune while cooking as her thoughts fell upon her new neighbor. Secretly, she starts to lay out plans on how she could befriend her new neighbor.

  


In his new school uniform, which was basically a brown shirt and pants, with a green tie and white shirt underneath the brown jacket. His mother had sent his files to Japan a few days before Syaoran had left for Juuban. As a result, Syaoran's uniform was already in the house when he arrived at his new home. Not to mention he had the chance to start the school year with all the other students as well. Apparently, his mother had wanted him to socialize and make friends while he was in Juuban.

_Yeah right,_ Syaoran thought as he stepped outside of the house, locking it. _Chances are, I'll probably won't even be here for more than at month at most. What's the point of making new friends if I'm not even going to see them ever again after a month. Writing is out of the question because as soon as I get back, I'm going to have to train even harder and have even more obligations to take care off._

Syaoran, without realizing, had slipped off into another one of his daily depression once more. "No one understands me," Syaoran muttered as he started to open the closed gate that was the only entry and exit out of the huge front yard. "I thought I found someone who had...but...I guess its true what they say. Dreams are just too good to come true. Just once, I wish I would meet someone who knew what it feels like to be considered an outcast among the people. Someone who-ouff!"

  


_I'm going to be late!_ Hotaru thought as she began to briskly walked out of the house with her bento safely tucked into her book bag. Of course, Hotaru had over thirty minutes to get to school and it was just a ten minute walk to there. However, with her fragile health, she didn't want to take a chance of accidentally having an early morning seizure and being late to school. So thus, she was walking briskly, not over exerting herself too fast, as she walked away from the from her house.

Unfortunately, Hotaru failed to notice the young boy that had just stepped out from the neigboring yard. Nor was the boy able to see the pretty little girl that was about to ram right into him, seeing since he was somewhat distracted in deep thoughts. Thus, with the lack of attention the two of them were paying to what was around them, added to the brisk walk that Tomoe Hotaru was using, resulted in a rather unpleasent physical accident.

Hotaru didn't know what really hit her. She had just taken a turn heading for her school, walking as fast as she can and a moment later, she realized that she was laying on top of a rather handsome young boy. However, it wasn't the boy's handsome looks that kept her frozen and evidently embarassed at the moment. Nor was it the fact that the boy had two of the most deepest and warmest amber eyes that Hotaru had ever seen. Nor was it the boy's wild and uncombed locks of chestnut brown hair. Not at a first anyway. What had caught her attention at the moment, was fact that her lips were resting rather comfterably on his.

  


What Syaoran had realized first, when he was rudely knocked off his feet, was that his lips failed to move when he was about to make a rather rude statement to his 'assaulter'. The second thing he notice were those eyes. Violet eyes. He'd never seen anyone with violet eyes before. But it wasn't the color of the eyes that kept him fixated on them. It was what they said to him that kept him there.

It was like looking at the night skies, staring into those eyes. Those silent violet eyes that seem to hold back a force of nature...a force that was beyond anything on earth. Those eyes were pregnant with the twin powers of creation and destruction within them. Eyes that held a distant glint that Syaoran had recognize.

It wasn't until Syaoran tried to speak again that he realized that his lips were gently pushed against hers'. Syaoran's mind chose this exponible moment to suddenly shut off everything else, except for the feeling of the young girl's gentle, warm lips against his. Oddly enough, for Syaoran, it was both an exhilarating and dreading sensation. Exhilarating because Syaoran had never really felt the physical sensation of having his lips pressed up against another person's, needless to say a girl's. Dreading, because he knew, from experience of being a little 'bust boy' for his sister's earlier house dates, that the position he that he had just found himself in, usually concluded with her sister's execrable dates receiving a mild burn, at best and if they just happen to find the boy cute. Which would account for almost all males who were capable of some form of speech on the planet.

After what seemed like an eternalty and a half, Syaoran's sense of moral finally kicked in and he gently pushed the girl away. While keeping his blood from running up to his face, which wasn't the only thing he was trying to keep down at the moment, Syaoran aided the girl to her feet. "Go...gomen na...nasai." Syaoran stumbled over the words as they simply chose to fall from his lips like water from a running faucet, just not as smoothely. After the rather clumsy apology, Syaoran's brain decided to work again and Syaoran mentally woke up to find himself still staring into the girl's violet eyes.

Syaoran was nearly taken back when his eyes were introduced to the scrawny form of the brunette. _No, not scrawny really. Just very petite and still developing into womanhood._ Syaoran quickly corrected himself. Her skin was smoothe and light, bringing out mental images of vinella ice cream into Syaoran's mind. Her face contained the same color skin, which seemed to show off the sweet gentle maturity within her large eyes, making her one of the prettiest, if not _ the_ prettiest, girls Syaoran had even seen. And he had meet a lot of extremely attractive members of the opposite sex, due only to the fact that he was related to them. Her gentle black hair was shoulder length, but they emitted a soft silky shine. Giving away the illusion that she may have been wearing a piece of clothe over her hair. Almost instantly, Syaoran had urge to reach out to them and ran his hands through them.

"Gomen nasai..." Syaoran repeated. "Ano...I didn't see you...sorry about this."

Hotaru was snapped out of _her_ reverie when Syaoran bowed his head apologizing. "No...its my fault," Hotaru slowly said as she tried to pull her eyes away from the boy. "I...I wasn't watching where I was going... Gomen nasai."

_Please don't hate me, please don't hate me, please don't hate me..._ Hotaru prayed the line over and over in her head, as if it was a mantra. She couldn't believe that she had been so stupid or forgetful. She had gotten so use to walking to school with her head down and staring only at the ground, mainly so she doesn't have to look at all the looks several passerby gives her, that she had completely forgotten that she had a new neighbor that might just be attending her school as well. And now, after she spent so much time earlier this morning, planning on how to meet this person and how she could befriend them, she had almost automatically thrown any chance of friendship she may have had. All because of her own idiocy. _Please, PLEASE don't hate me!_ Her eyes started to tear up as she continued to scold herself.

Syaoran couldn't help but look up at the girl's beautifully scupltured face again. Her facial features seemed so elegant and fragile, that Syaoran was afraid that if he even so much breathed on it, it would shatter under his breath. _She's prettier than even Sakura,_ Syaoran frowned at his last thought. But somewhere in the back of his mind, he countered, _Its true anyway._

Syaoran was stopped before he got into another mental arguement with his mind when he heard a sob emit from the girl. _Kuso_ Syaoran said to himself. _Did I hurt her? Baka Syaoran! You should've made sure if she was okay first rather than stare at her! Baka Baka Baka._

Syaoran examined the girl, who was surprisingly almost as tall as he was. After making sure that she wasn't seriously hurt, Syaoran suddenly remembered his manners again and introduced himself. "I'm Li Syaoran...Sorry about hurting you. Please don't cry...I didn't mean to hit you."

Hotaru was taken back at the young boy's, Li Syaoran, earnest apology. He was visibly sorry and evidentally convinced that she was apalled by him. _He's...he's not mad?_ Hotaru's sobs came to a halt, just a little before she realized that the boy had his hands on her shoulders. Hotaru's face quickly became hot, switching to several shades of red that would make a tomotoe envious, and the sidewalk suddenly became rather interesting to her.

"There," Syaoran said again as soon as he realized that she had calmed down some what. "I hope you're not hurt...I didn't see you and I guess...gomen...again. I didn't-"

Syaoran stopped when he realized that he was beginning to ramble. _Man, she must think I'm some sort of idiot that's never been around a girl before!_ Since she was slightly looking down at the ground, Syaoran couldn't really see how red Hotaru's face was, nor did she see his. Which was, at the moment, just as red as her's. _How do I always manage to physically hurt a girl when I first meet them!? Do the kamis just hate me!?_

"You don't hate me?" Hotaru shyly said, just barely audible._ Please don't hate me, please don't, please don't._

"Why...why would I hate you?" Syaoran stumbled over the words as they escaped his mouth. "I...I hope you're not mad."

Hotaru's face brightened at Syaoran's reply. "Honto? You're not mad or angry?"

"N-no," Syaoran said as the girl's eyes quickly switched from looking at the ground to his face.

"R-really?!" Hotaru cheered. After a slight pause, Hotaru's manners finally caught up with her and her blushed reddened at the realization. "Gomen. I'm Tomoe Hotaru. I'm sorry about running into you. I wasn't paying attention."

Syaoran stared at the girl, fighting back a smile that was trying to creep up onto his face. _Firefly, eh?_ He MENTALLY smiled at the thought. _It suits her._

Hotaru bowed deeply. Rising her head back up to look at the boy, she noticed the familiar color of the his uniform. Without even thinking, Hotaru asked, "Do you go to Mugen Academy, too?"

"Uh...Hai," Syaoran responded. "I just transfered there this year. Do you go there too?"

Hotaru nodded slowly. "Hai." she responded with a nod. A silent pause dropped in between them as they both continue to blink and look at one another. Both of them averted they gaze to the ground as they tried to relieve themselves of the awkwardness of the silence. For a while, the only sounds between them were the echos of the early morning winds whispering their morning news. Mixed with the happy chirpings of the bird's high pitched songs. Daring all to try to match their beautious harmonies and musical sync. Infact, at that moment, all the world seemed like a box of noise, with the pair of children on the streets of Juuban being the only sole exception from that law. Desperate to break the pause between them, Hotaru just allowed the next lines of words flow almost freely from her mouth.

"Li-kun," she said, startling Syaoran with her blushing boldness and with her words. No one had called him by that name in such a long time that it was almost foreign to him. Apparently, hearing those words, reawaken memories from his past that he'd like to remain buried in the past. Hotaru, on the other, flinched a little at Syaoran's sudden twitch. Hoping that she didn't already ruin her chance at friendship, again, continued on with her question. "What grade will you be in?" 

"Eight," Syaoran answered, relieved that she had been the one to break the awkward wall silence between them and not him. "And you Tomoe-san?"

"Eight as well," Hotaru smiled as she answered, her blush still evident on her face. Strangely though, to Syaoran, her blushing combined with her gentle shyness only seemed to add on and increase her already kawaii features even more. "And please, just call me Hotaru. I really don't like the formality."

Syaoran blinked at the girl. "Umm...okay Hotaru," There was another pause as he Syaoran tried to come up with something else to say. _Think you air head,_ Syaoran chided himself. _Say something. ANYTHING! Okay, maybe not anything. But do _something_ before it starts to seem too awkward._

_Like it already hasn't,_ Another part of Syaoran mind's counter. _Since she's dropping the formality with you, drop it for her too baka!_ Without even thinking or waiting for another part of his mind to respond, Syaoran just allowed the words to slip from his mouth. "You can just call me Syaoran if you like," as the words escaped his mouth, Syaoran _really_ wished that he could pull his sword out of subspace at this moment and just slit his throat with it. _Idiot! You know that you sound like a desperate fool who's trying to get a date to a dance right?_ Trying to 'fix' the situation, Syaoran quickly tried to amend the idiocy of his last statement. 

Before he could even begin though, he was interupted by the sound of Hotaru clapping her hands as she squeal in obvious delight. "Honto?!" Hotaru smiled brightly. "You...you won't mind me calling you by your name?"

Syaoran nodded again as he stared at the girl in bewilderment. "Sure,"

Hotaru nearly lept for joy when Syaoran confirmed her that she just wasn't hearing things when he told her she could call him 'Syaoran' instead of Li-kun or even Syaoran-kun. _Arigato megami,_ Hotaru praised gladly that she had hopefully made a new friend. _And a very cute one too!_ she added as the little girl within her continued to shine in her eyes in obvious delight.

All the while this was happening, Syaoran could only look at the girl in deep content. He'd obviously did something right if she was this happy. Being a bit of an empath, Syaoran could feel strong feelings from people. At the moment, he could feel the girl's overwhelming happiness erupt within her has she tried to conceal her excitement.

_Some much like Sakura yet so different,_ Syaoran thought sadly as he continue to fight down a smile and still stare at Hotaru. _Atleast, I hope so._

____________________________End of First Chapter_____________________________

This is the first chapter. I hope you like it. I know, I know. All of those S+S fans out there are going to grill me for this. But hey, I thought I would try something different for a change. It was between Syaoran and Hotaru or Syaoran and Sasami from Tenchi Muyo. Infact, I may just do one for that too, if I get done with this one. I would like to hear what you people think about it. Even if it is to threaten my to stop my crazy plans for this story. I already have the layout of the story all lined out. Its just what happens in between thats gonna be a pain. So please, if you people wanna have more this, I'm going to need ALL of your help and encouragement to keep me going. I guess you already take a pretty good shot in the dark on the couple in story. LOL. I was very tempted to make this a Syaoran+Chibi-Usa tale, but with Helios, even though I'm a bit of a Helios basher, I decided not to.

Please tell me ur thoughts, even if its too criticize...as long as i know someone's reading this. also, tell me should I stop, or keep going too. It depends on the number of reviews I get and the type of things they say.

Thanks for reading. Tell me what you think by e-mailing me at LPS_2@yahoo.com. I'll try to respond to your letters and I'll take request scenes if you want to see them in the story. Or atleast I'll try to add them in if they seem to have a good spot in the story.


	2. chapter 2

When Strangers Meet Disc: I don't own CCS or SM or Ranma 1/2. They're all respectively borrowed into my NON-PROFITABLE writing. This is only for the enjoyment of the readers.  
  
  
  


'''''  
( ' ' )  
________oOOo____^____oOOo________  


When Strangers Meet  
By  
Neohowler

  
  
  
  
chapter 2 

"Settle down class," Ms. Aseri waled over the room of students. She waited a few seconds as the students scurry and ran about to get to their desk. When she was certain she had the full attention of the class, Ms. Aseri started again, "Welcome class A-8. I will be your teacher for the first hour of the day, you may refer to me as Ms. Aseri. Now, I want to introduce you to Mugen Academy's first transfer student since it had been rebuilt, Li Syaoran."

Everyone's eyes turned towards the young chinese boy standing infront of the room. Several "Oooh," "Ahhh," and "wow!" trailed the introduction. Soon followed by "Oh he's cute!" and "Wannabe friends." and "I wonder if he has a girlfriend." Syaoran couldn't help but flinched at the last comment. At the moment, Syaoran felt glad that Wei and his mother had forced him to go through the streneous hours of mental control over his empathic gifts. Otherwise, if Syaoran hadn't sheild his powers at the moment, all of the combined hostility from the boys and the overdriven hormones of the girls would've sent him running and packing.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class," Ms. Aseri asked, pointing her arms towards the room full of students. However, her words barely even registered to Syaoran. Syaoran was a bit preoccupied at the moment scanning the faces and energy reading of his new classmates. Storing and branding every bit of information into his memory, with the aid of magic of course. After a short moment of silence and memory engraining, Syaoran was about to conclude that his new classmates were 'normal' kids, when Syaoran's PMS (Powerful Magic Sensors) started going off the wall. After tuning down his PMS (need I write out the entire meaning again?), Syaoran's sight fell upon the source of the high energy source and a familiar face.

Tomoe Hotaru stiffened in her seat like a deer caught in the headlights as those deep amber eyes rested upon her. Eyes that seemed like they could burn into the depths of her soul. Eyes that seemed to be undressing her down to the barebone and reading her thoughts like an open book. She could almost feel the invisible arms of those eyes reaching out into her mind and pulling out every bit of information it can. Yet, strangely, Hotaru felt relieved. Relieved at the fact that out of all the girls in the room, it was her those eyes chose to fall upon. It was her that those cat curious eyes were studying with the utmost earnest. She felt giddy and excited at the attention of the one boy she had ever craved attention from since her father. She also felt a great deal of fear and confusion as well.

There was a certain feeling of being uncomfterable as Syaoran stared at her with those predatory eyes. Like as if he was searching for an old memory or something famaliar in her face. Almost as if he was trying to remember something that was almost forgotten, but on the brink of famaliarity(once again, a strange word that may not exist in the english dictionary, but it works just fine for me). But just couldn't place where the feeling of knowing was and how come it was there.

  


Syaoran stared at the girl he'd ran into this morning with the utmost earnest. Reaching for her emotions with his empathic gifts and searching her very emotions to find any trace of ill intent. Eventually, he found none. However, Syaoran was able to find old traces of links to a rather dark and extremely powerful dark force. It was severed, however, that doesn't mean that the link can't be reestablished. Syaoran also found another link as well. A stronger and much more soothing link. A familiar and magical link full of silverish white specs of moon magic. Syaoran dismissed the link for the moment. Writing it off as a close encounter with someone who has a high amount of Moon magic, like Yukito had or Yue._ Last I heard, Yukito and Touya was doing some kinda of out of school study here in Juuban, so..._

He let the thought hang and returned to the 'job' at hand. However, he wasn't picking up the strong power source he'd read earlier from her though. He felt a certain amount of magic from Hotaru, however, it was rather dim. Weak. But Syaoran also felt a hint of a barrier of some kind that was holding back and enormous amount of power. A source of magic stronger than all of Eriol's, Sakura's, Touya's, Kero, Spinal Sun, Ruby Moon, and Yukito/Yue magical powers combined. Enough power to literally level an entire world!

While Syaoran was running all of the new information through his mind, Ms. Aseri was starting to get annoyed. The boy had simply ingored her request as if she was not even there. Getting a bit irratated, Ms. Aseri repeated her question/demand. "Now Syaoran, I know that you can be shy the first day. But here, its considered good manners to introduce yourself to a new class. Wouldn't you like to show the class how well mannered you are by introducing yourself?"

A simple, neutral "No" came from Syaoran.

Almost immediately, the entire class room gasped in shock at Syaoran's response. Actually, half the room was already halfway out of their seats and getting ready to run for the door if need be. Ms. Aseri was a great teacher and her methods were effective, if rather odd. However, her short temper was widely known and fear. If she felt like punshing the bad-doer wasn't enough, she would usually take out her anger on the rest of the class. And going against her request would probably fit under bad. Which was why, almost all the students couldn't help but stare in shock at Syaoran. They deduced, that either Syaoran was really brave or really really really stupid. Scratch that. Stupid was more of an understatement. Even a stupid idiot wouldn't want to mess with Ms. Aseri's temper. Infact, rumor was that she once took out a few thugs when they wouldn't rob her correctly. Of course no one really believed this.

Hotaru was just as much in shock as her classmates were at Syaoran's response. She didn't think she would lose a new friend so fast after she just meet them too. No one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, talked to Ms. Aseri in that 'no tone in your voice' tone of voice. Not even the principal had the guts to approach Ms. Aseri in that tone. Heck, not even Haruka could muster the courage to raise her voice against Ms. Aseri and here was Syaoran, a transfer student, totally rebeling against her. Okay, so maybe rebelling was a strong word, but you get the idea. Of course if Hotaru knew that compared to the women that Syaoran normally deals with, Ms. Aseri wasn't even considered a workout. However, there is the old saying that 'Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn,' to think about as well.

"Please," Ms. Aseri forced a false smile on as she grit her teeth and tried to refrain of choking the student. "Would you please introduce yourself to the classroom, so we may get on with our day?!" Syaoran slightly turned to look at her for a second, before putting on a scowl, which took Ms. Aseri every bit of will power she had not to just reach out and strangle the boy. Her day's allowance of patience was wearing thin and this CHILD was grinding on her last nerve. However, seeing how he was new to the glass, Ms. Aseri held her pride and anger in check and decided to give Syaoran one FINAL chance before she decides to kill him. Or atleast send him to the nurse office. "PLEASE introduce YOURself to the CLASSroom...PLEASE."

Syaoran returned his gaze back to his class, then back to her and sigh. Ms. Aseri was about to balled her fist and knock the boy into LEO, when Syaoran turned back to the class and bowed. "I'm Li Syaoran and I'm from Hong Kong. I hope to meet you all."

  


Syaoran barely heard the words the first time when Ms. Aseri asked him to introduced himself. So he assumed that she had asked him if he was going to stay at Mugen Academy for long, so Syaoran simply replied with a simple, "No." Since he knew that he wouldn't be staying long anyway. Waiting for Ms. Aseri to assign him a seat, Syaoran returned his attention back to the class. _Whoa!_ was the only word that registared in Syaoran's mind as he looked at the fear strikened faces of the class. _Let me guess, this is _one_ of_ those_ teachers, I suppose._

Syaoran turned to face Ms. Aseri and noted the forced falsed smile on her face. "...please introduce yourself to the classroom, so we may get on with our day?!" Syaoran looked at his classmates again, still seeing that some of them were ready to run for the door. "PLEASE introduce YOURself to the CLASSroom...PLEASE."

_If you wanted me to introduce myself, you could've just asked to you know,_ Syaoran thought as he turned to Ms. Aseri again. _Fine...might as well..._ Syaoran Sighed.

"I'm Li Syaoran and I'm from Hong Kong." Syaoran bowed. "I hope to meet you all."

  


A few weeks later

Syaoran twisted his body in mid-air as he readies for a landing. Silent as a shadow, Syaoran's feet touches the roof of a building. Before anyone could see him, he leaps once again with Cat-like agility onto a close by building, which were thirty feet from where he was. However, despite whatever physical, and magical, exertions Syaoran was using to perform these feats, he's mind was occupied at the moment with other problems. Particularly with a certain young girl that lived next to his 'borrowed' house.

_I just don't get it,_ Syaoran thought in mid-leap. _She's definetly a channeler, that parts for sure. But with a source of magic that strong, she should be attracting sorcerors left and right. Not to mention that the Li records have no idea whatsoever about a source of power that strong anywhere on this planet...which only means she must be like Sakura. She probably draws her powers from a force outside of Earth. But what could that be?!_ Syaoran grunted as he landed just as silently as he did on his last landing, however the grunt was more in frustration then it was from the landing. _It could be from any source of magic. The Astral Plains, the stars, a magical artifact up in space, or an entity from another dimension. ARGH! I gotta figure this out and FAST! I dont' know whether she's evil or not. For all I know, she could be the main source of all those...youma was it and Daimons and driods...that has been attacking._

Syaoran curls his body in mid-air and its rolls in the night air like he was on the ground. Then, as he was about the crash into the side of a building, Syaoran unfolded his body, the soles of his feet slamming into the wall, causing a silent thud. Then, bending his knees and looking up to the top of a building alteast forty feet away and six story higher then where he was, Syaoran pushed himself away from the side of the building and launched himself straight at for the top of the building. 

He more floated then arrowed to the top of the high building. Landing silently once more, Syaoran returns back to his track of thoughts. _She's atleast aware of her powers and knows how to use them, a little atleast. Though I never saw her use them..._

  
Flashback  


It was his second day at the newly rebuilt school of Mugen Academey. Today, they had meet their new mathematics teacher, Mr. Kougai. Which didn't take very. Because within the first five minutes of class, Mr. Kougai had gave the students a fast run through of what they needed to know and assigned them several equations from their math books as classwork and whatever they couldn't finish in class would be their homework. After giving his students their assignments, Mr. Kougai simply left the class simply to fend for themselves.

Oddly enough, or maybe not, immediately after the teacher left the classroom, Syaoran's desk was quickly swarm by practically all the girls in the room, much the most of the boy's chagrin. Asking him questions that pretty much had little, or nothing, to do with their math assignment. Well, not all the girls were swarmed around Syaoran. One lone brunette had remained anchored in her seat, silently trying to concentrate soley on _her_ work, and not the mob of girls that had surrounded her new...now probably old friend.

_They've probably told him all about their school's little witch,_ Hotaru held back a sob as she continued to finish her equations. _X equals Y if Y is...the reason why no one likes me. The X equals...my powers..._ Hotaru shook her head as she tried to refocus her thoughts back on her assignment. _Got to concentrate...got to keep my mind on what's important...my work._

Hotaru was about to do just that when she felt a hand rest on her right shoulder and a soft, though almost dry of all emotions, voice singed into her ears, saying, "Do you need help?" Almost immediately after she'd heard those words, Hotaru felt her shoulder, the shoulder that the hand has rested upon, tingle with a giddy rush of cool waves that seemed to rolled down her entire right side down to the floor. The young girl slowly turned around to face the two amber orbs and a lightly colored face with a neutral and but trusting face.

  


Syaoran had felt like he was drowning. No less then a second after the Mr. Kougai left the room, did all these crazy hormoned driven girls suddenly walked up to him and started bugging with questions. Questions that had nothing to do with their current assignment. Questions that he had to answer more then three times. Questions that were constantly being repeated. HE HATED IT. _Who needs to understand magic when they already have women to try and understand._ Syaoran thought as he answered another question about his age again, while trying to solve the ump-teenth problem on in his book. _Why can't they just leave me alone?! Did mom use another swoon spell on me before I left home? Or did my sisters did it as a practical joke? If I find out that they did, we're going to have a LONG talk about this when I get home!_

Syaoran was about to answer another stupid question about Hong Kong when he felt a strong amount of magic, though not as nearly as strong as his, just infront of him. Ignoring the question, he raised his head up towards the source, Syaoran found himself once again, for the second time this week, staring at Tomoe Hotaru. The same girl he'd been puzzled by yesterday. Infact, unnoticed to Hotaru, Syaoran had pretty much followed her everywhere after school yesterday trying to see if she was more then she seems. _Maybe she doesn't have any clue about her powres,_ Syaoran thought as he started towards the young girl. _Which could be even more dangerous potentially if she was too lose control somehow...and if she has even half the amount of power I felt yesterday, she could level three or four city blocks on her own._

Deciding that he should keep a Read on her (a read is my made up idea of magic tracking), Syaoran started to search for a sound tactic as he found his hand resting on Hotaru's shoulder. _Okay,_ Syaoran panicked as he realized that if he cast the spell now, she may just noticed. He needed something to distract her. Something that appear to be casual and...just something that wouldn't make him seem like a total idiot, though the idea may have already registered in Hotaru's mind. _Think. Think. Think! You're the future leader of the Li clan, you idiot. Think of something. Just don't stand there looking like a fool. You've been up against dragons, demons, and vampires worse then this. Heck you've worked on math equations...THAT'S IT!_

Syaoran took a quick glance over Hotaru's math work and almost sighed with relief. She was still a ways behind him on the assignment. Which should provide the best, if not really sound, cover up. "Do you need help?" He asked as he initiated a spell to keep track of her and her magic level. Sending the spell deep within her, so that no one would suspect is at first glance. Of course a train magician and sorceror would be able to tell, but not a person with an untrained gift. Therefore, if Hotaru's magic level was to suddenly rise, or if she was in danger of having her magic suddenly take over, Syaoran would be able to track her down through the Read.

  


Hotaru slightly blushed and nodded. "H-hai, Syaoran," Hotaru slowly turned back to face her work, with Syaoran leaning over her and his hand still on her shoulder. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of Syaoran being this close to her. He had walked to school with her again this morning. Of course, they didn't bump into each other like yesterday. He had simply just stood there waiting with his book bag in hand. With his gentle lockes blowing with the early late summer breeze.

Sneaking a peek at her new neighbor, Hotaru blushed again. To her, all of these feelings were all new. She was discovering boys, for the first time in her life. And Syaoran was definetly a _very_ good boy. He was strong and agile, if their gym class yesterday had proved anything at all, it was that Li Syaoran was no slow runner or weak player. Yet, he was gentle and soft. He was patient when he walked with her home yesterday. He didn't make the silence feel awkward, just more welcoming. As if they were exchanging words in the silence. He was slow enough to pace with her, but fast enough to not be considered slow.

_He's just as cute as Mamoru and Helios,_ Hotaru found herself thinking. She was surprised at first. But then, she smiled at herself. Part of her, about ninety-eight percent, had agreed with her thought. Here was a young boy, just barely into his teens, and already he was considered atleast as high as Helios's and Mamoru's caliber and looks. It didn't take a genius to know that once Syaoran reaches full maturity, he would surpass both Mamoru(her future king) and Helios(her possible distant future king) in the subject of appearance, if nothing else. He didn't have and identity crisis, like Mamoru had as Tuxedo Kamen. And he wasn't stuck as an animal, as Helios was. The only down part, or maybe not, was that Syaoran would be endangered if she started to hang around him. Even though they had defeated the Negaverse, there could still be other threats. And if they found out who Hotaru really was, they would try to hurt Syaoran to get to her. That was one reason why Minako and Makoto never really try to get into a serious relationship. She knew that they were both boy crazy, but she also knew that unless they quit being senshi, or unless they found a boyfriend just as powerful as them, they could never truly have a real relationship.

Just then, another topic came to her mind. _What would Usagi and Chibi-Usa think if they heard you say that?_ She, of course, knew what her princess/future queen and bestfriend/future princess would probably do if they found out that she had said that about their 'men.' Usagi would probably wail and cry out that _her_ Mamo-chan was cuter. Chibi-Usa would probably hold somekind of beauty pagent with Helios, Mamoru, and Syaoran competing. Hotaru stole another quick glance at Syaoran's features as he explained about the problems. _Then again,_ Hotaru giggled, ignoring Syaoran's sideway glance at her. _I think they'll agree with me._

  


While Hotaru was lost in thought, she failed to noticed one sly comment from one girls who had failed to gain Syaoran's attention. "See," she whispered to one of her friend. "She's already cast a spell on him, now only she can have him."

However, this comment didn't go unnoticed by Syaoran's keen sense of hearing.

  
End of flashback 

Syaoran landed on another roof, and stopped to behold the brightly lit site before him. _Tokyo is almost like Hong Kong,_ Syaoran thought as he stretched his PMS out to the max. Syaoran, in all respect, was starting to get extremly frustrated. He hadn't ran into trouble since he took care of those street thugs a few nights ago. And they were pretty easy. However, what really frustrated Syaoran, beside the fact of not running into any sign of the so call monsters and trying to find the source of Hotaru's power, was the fact that within the last few weeks, he hadn't even ran into any sign of the so call senshi. Even the midst of fighting off street thugs and small time robbery, he didn't even see or sense them anywhere near by.

_Don't tell me these Sailor Senshi are just amateaurs,_ Syaoran thought as he started on his night search again. Apparently, Syaoran hated working with the so called 'beginners' of the job. So called warriors with a small amount of magic rushing blindly into battle claiming that love and justice and hope will help them win. All in all, through most of his experiences, this does help. Infact, that was the very way that the Clow cards were captured. However, if Sakura or Yohko or Pretty Sammy ever had to face the things that Syaoran faced during his missions, love and wouldn't have save any of them. _Don't tell me that these so call defenders of love and justice are just a bunch of idiots who have only survived on blind luck! Wouldn't suprise me if they have a couple of guardians with them as well._

Finally heading home, Syaoran lessened the area scan of his PMS. _Figured that these senshi wouldn't do much,_ Syaoran thought as he started his usual roof hopping pattern. _They don't even bother with stopping any else other then youmas and monsters. Give some guy a gun and a knife and they disappear from sight. They don't even bother to patrol __their_ city. Orcales...even I run a patrol in Hong Kong atleast twice a week! With angry thoughts and a somewhat heavy heart, Syaoran continues to head home.

  
A Few Days Later 

_Bakabakashii! Bakabakashii! Bakabakashii! Bakabakashii!!_ These were the words of a Syaoran who wanted to kick himself, then kill himself with his sword, as he carried the lithe and light form of an unconcious Hotaru to the nurses office. _Should've known! Shouldn't have even tried! Should've been using MY HEAD! Bakabakashii! Syaoran NO BAKA!_

  
Flashback 

It was during Gym class that Syaoran had noticed that Hotaru usually sits out in almost all of the activities, saved for the warm up exercises. Of course he's noticed this before, but he never really wondered why. He'd just assumed that she just decided not to join, but the teachers didn't even really bothered with disciplining her. So Syaoran decided that he should. Little did he know that he was going to happen next.

  


Hotaru sat down beside the soccer field to watch her classmates play a game of soccer. Normally, Mr. Tsukare didn't have mixed gender games, but today was one of those days where he was just simply to lazy to bother with dealing with two types of sports. So he through the boys and the girls together for a round of soccer. It was, as the teams named themselves, the yuushouba(winning horse) versus the kogumanopu-san(winnie the pooh: Yes I mean the round yellow bear we all know and hate/love). Needless to say who was winning; Team Kogumanopu-san. And for one specific reason, or to be more precise, player. Li Syaoran.

Hotaru watched in awe as Syaoran cleverly twisted and dodged all the on coming players, while dribbling the ball across the field. Almost fluidly, like liquid going down a pattern maze of pipes, Syaoran flowed through the walls of human players that tried to stop him from his goal. However, Syaoran didn't hog the ball, as some may have thought. In fact, he, more or less, was being a defensive player. Only getting the ball back on the other team's side of the field and not even an inch further once the ball went past the half-field mark. He didn't even score any goals, he simply just didn't let anyone else score on his side. Which he was doing a fairly good job off doing.

Syaoran moved very much like his foreign namesake, Little Wolf. The ball was his prey and a trespasser when it came to his side of the field. And he would go straight for the ball and only the ball. Like a wolf out on the hunt, he would concentrate on only getting the ball. Then, once he had the ball, he would carefully dribble it back to the other team's side. Chasing the unneeded trespasser of his territory, then waited once more for the prey to return. Simple as that.

Hotaru stopped day dreaming when she saw Syaoran turned to face her. _Oh no,_ she thought as she looked down onto the grass. _Please, please, _please_ don't let him see me. Don't let him see me. Don't let him see me. PLEASE!_ Although Hotaru knew that he had, more or less, noticed her sitting there, it was more for luck then it was for its literal meaning. Hotaru looked up again to where she was last staring and curse whatever kami there was at the moment. Syaoran was walking straight for her, and she suddenly felt a chill in the air. _Oh no..._

  


Syaoran seldom enjoy things. Soccer of was one of the few things that he truly enjoyed. Of course, he had to hold back some, but not a lot. Even though it almost took concious will for him not to use a wind spell to get the ball into the goal, he liked it better when it was 'all natural.' It just felt so much more rewarding when his team scored a goal on their own. And when he is able to get the ball over to the otherside for them, it felt just as good because even though he knew that he could easily dominate this game, he needed to learn about team work. So he was also enjoying the company of his classmates, for the time being.

The Kogamanopu-san scored another point and Syaoran almost smiled, but fought it back down. _This is almost too easy,_ Syaoran thought as she looked over to the sidelines to see a glazed eye Hotaru staring at him. _She never joins in any of the activities. Wonder if there's a reason?_ Syaoran had heard the tales. Hotaru the freak, the witch, the weak, the killer, it goes on. Hotaru casting a spell to throw her father into another dimension. That it was one of her spells that first destroyed Mugen Academy about a year ago. Which was closer to the truth then most people are aware off. Also, Syaoran had heard how Hotaru had seriously hurt some of the bigger and stronger kids and then claims that she doesn't even remember doing it. He doubted some of the others, but the last one was believable. _Yukito doesn't exactly remember what Yue does, but Yue is 'aware' of what Yukito does. Maybe she's the same too._

Well, whatever the reason, Syaoran had to test her out. {--not that way you hentais! This will NOT become a lemon, just a really bitter tangerine; )--} And he knew just the way to do it as well...

  
End of flashback 

_Bakabakashii! Bakabakashii! Bakabakashii!! Baka baka baka baka baka baka baka baka baka!_ Syaoran thought some more as he finally arrived at the nurse's office. _Syaoran no BAKA!!_ He added one last time for closure, as Syaoran gently kicked the Nurse's office door, still carrying the unconcious form of Hotaru in his arms.

It had all started out innocently enough. Syaoran asked Hotaru to joined, since it _was_ rumored that she took on a couple of huge guys at once before, he figured that she could atleast be a challenge in soccer. He was dead wrong. Within the first two minutes of the game, Hotaru was about ready to passout, after the first two minute of the game, she did. What really ticked Syaoran off was how her classmates didn't even want to come close to her when she fainted. They even backed away for some reason or another. Those that laughed recieved a death glare from Syaoran and quickly ceased their laughter. That was when Mr. Tsukare finally woke up and told Syaoran about Hotaru's 'special condition.' Seeing how this seemed to be all his fault, Syaoran volunteered to take Hotaru to the nurse, by carrying her, much the the chagrin of the other girls in the class.

Anyway, back to the nurse's office. Syaoran knocked a second time and this time, he recieved an answer from behind the wooden pine door. "Just a minute," came a soft feminine voice. A moment later, the door slide opened to reveal a short woman with dark pink hair. "Oh, hello. I'm Nurse Joy(Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon characters). How may I-" Nurse Joy took one quick glance at the unconcious Hotaru and gasped. "Another seizure!? Hurry, put her on the bed. I'll get some cold water ready."

Syaoran did as he was instructed while Nurse Joy went off and got a glass of water. "How did this happen?" she asked Syaoran as she checked Hotaru's temperature and pulse. Syaoran quickly told Nurse Joy about the whole story, in a calm and very military like mannered voice. When Syaoran was finished with the explaination, Nurse Joy gave him a displeasing glanced, but shook it off a second later and returned her attention to Hotaru. "She'll be all right now, all she needs is a little rest." Nurse Joy said as she took a blanket and covered Hotaru's body. "_You_ have to go back to class."

Whether Syaoran had heard the emphasized 'you' in the sentence or not, he decided to do what the kind Nurse, or kind as he could call it, had told him to do. Leave. Stepping outside, Syaoran took one final glanced back at Hotaru's sleeping figure and sighed. _Just a few days of this and I'm leaving for home,_ Syaoran thought as he stepped into the hall, closing the door gently behind him and started to head back to class.

  


In the outskirts of Tokyo, a tall and lean figured stood with a violet and silver lined box in hi hands. With a symbol of a winged back signified to where the lock should be, the box slowly opened with a creak that seemed to shout out with a thousand acient voices of a warning. However, that didn't stop the dark figured. It reached into the box and retrieve the sacred treasure that laid deep within the box. Bringing it's only content out into sunlight, once. And one may have thought that one could've heard the name, Clow escape from the figure's lips before an insane laughter followed along with a flash of Dragon blood red light. For we all know that human and natural animals in nature don't have natural red blood until it reaches air, outside of their shelled body.

---------------------------end of Chapter 2-------------------------------

I know, I know, it took me A LONG LONG LONG LONG time for me to get this chapter out, but I finally did it. mainly because do to the fact that I erased A LOT of the story in the process of clearing my hard drive. But I hope to get this story done. I managed to salvage half of the few chapter.

Oh, ask for the names of the teacher: Aseri-impatience.......Kougai-off campus.......Tsukare-Tiredness. I pick their names right didn't I ne?

Anyway, I hope that some of you Review this. Even if its just to flame. I REALLY WANT TO KNOW HOW GOOD I AM. I READ THIS FIC ATLEAST 3 TIMES AFTER I REWROTE just to get it just right. So please, PLEASE REVIEW. Tell me what I might need to make this story more interesting. I know I'm not the best there is, but I'm trying. Thank you.

Or send you complaints to LPS_2@yahoo.com


	3. chapter 3

When Strangers Meet 3 Disclaimer: I don't own CCS or Sailormoon or any other recognizable anime characters in the story...dadadada  
  
  
  
  


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When Strangers Meet  
by  
Neohowler

Chapter 3

"Yes mother," Syaoran spoke into the mouthpiece of the phone. "I'm coming home in two days."

  


It had been just a little over a month since Syaoran had arrived and temporarily taken residence in Juuban. A little over a month since he had agreed to take on the duty of investigating the high magic readings that had been appearing recently in Juuban. And a whole month of trying to solve the mystery behind the unknown source of power for one Tomoe Hotaru.

_Leave no stone unturned I guess,_ Syaoran thought to himself as he headed for the only place in his father's house where he knew he could probably find a clue to the mystery. The basement. Or more specific, his father's well collected library. He had known of the library when he first took a small tour. However, he never really gave the shelved books a second glance. Mostly because they appeared so old and dusty. Then again, those books had probably remained untouched for atleast ten years.

A few hours later, Syaoran transformed the neatly organized room of books into a room full of towers and pillars of stacked books. With half the shelves empty or totally void of books. Towers of books that were as high as eight feet, taunted the mind of anybody who would've walked into the room with thoughts of collapsing books. Under normal circumstances and with a 'normal' person, the books may have already collapsed unto an unsuspecting victim. However, as for those who is aware of Syaoran's unique gift, those events are likely to happen as the moon is likely to turn pink. In other words, Syaoran used a simple gravity spell to keep the tall stacks of books in place while he sat away at an old faded brown reading desk...reading. Or for those who didn't like that last term lets use, 'he was partaking in an activity that invokes collecting intelligence by means of looking and studying the literary works collected by his fahter(hehehe-college english professors, eat your heart out---*note, there is a word that probably doesn't belong in there.)'.

_Moon kingdoms!? Star Warriors!? Evil Interdimensional Beings!?_ Thought Syaoran as he read through one of his father's plain gray journals. He had scan through most of the other books, using magic to soak in the information and brand it into his memory to be sorted out later. At most, he probably only really bother to actually read two or three books. And those were a page or two that he thought was interesting. It was only by chance of luck that he noticed his father's journal collection. Curiosity eventually got the best of him and Syaoran ended up reading one of his father's last journal entries. Unfortunately, now Syaoran needed to question his mother if his own father was still sane during his last days of life.

Almost half the journal entries pertain to Li Lang's last studies of ancient Mesopotamia and Syria cultures. There, Lang had somehow stumbled upon ancient hieroglyphs that had caught his eyes. After months of decoding, Lang finally realized that the hieroglyphs were telling a tale of events that happened several thousands of years ago. An age of peace refered to as the 'Pure Era' or 'Silver Millinium.' Evidentally, Lang decided to follow up on the ancient text, and found other numerous cultures, long gone and nearly forgotten, that told the same tale.

_No offense father, but this all sounds just a little to farfetched._ Syaoran said to himself as he closes his father's journal. Besides, who in their right mind would believe about such an advanced and magically powerful civilization before even Great Magic Cataclysm? Often refer to by the Li family as, the Era of The Clow. Mainly due to the facts that that was supposedly the age where magic thrived the most and a lot of the most powerful spells were said to have been developed during those time. It was also the century in which Clow was born and the events leading to the Mage wars begin. Ultimately leading to the two hundred year end of magic, A.K.A as the Great Magic Cataclysm.

Pushing away from the desk and stretching his back muscles, Syaoran glanced over to the old grandfather clock that he's father at collected at the far end of the library. _Eleven forty-five? Took longer then I thought it would...guess I'll take a walk, need some freshair anyway,_ Syaoran yawned as he got up. _Maybe I'll go eat out just for today._

_And mom did say you should treat yourself to something sweet more often,_ another part of his mind said. "Maybe, but that doesn't mean I'm free to do so whenever I want." Syaoran countered outloud. So, as usual as the planets aligning in eternalty(by that I mean its bound to happen on more then just one or two occasion and will eventually become a normal event, since we're talking about forever right here), Syaoran slipped into his postponed morning argument with himself.

  
Today was the day. It will attack today. But _it_ can't allow itself to be seen...not yet. It was still too weak. And it could sense Clow's magic. And Clow's magic was strong. If it wanted to defeat Clow, it needed to be stronger. Smarter. It sensed Yue close by. It also sensed Keroberos and the Clow cards. But the cards weren't _Clow's_ cards anymore. It could sense a change in power. And the power was stronger then even Clow's.

"Impossible," _it_ said to _itself_ in a voice that was gender neutral, but cold as the Arctic winds. "Clow has been conquered. No doubt about it now, I must recharge the Dark Crystal. Then...then...revenge is MINE! DO YOU HEAR CLOW!? REVENGE WILL BE MINE!"

_It_ had planned for this all _its_ life. For hundreds of year, this was all _it_ thought off. It knew how it must recharge the crystal. The crystal told it how to. The crystal itself yearned for vengeance against those who had entrapped its soul into its present physical state. The crystal will have its power back again, and _it_ will have _its_ revenge as well. Now, _it_ need only to search for the Sailor Senshi.

  
Today was a cold day. With an irratating breeze blowing through the air. There was a little chill in the air for those who weren't properly dressed for the weather. For those who were properly dressed, were either oblivious to the 'coolness' in the air, or chose not to acknowledge. Especially our gentle spirited Hotaru. Who, at the moment, was entering a park only a few blocks from her foster home with a purple book in hands. Hotaru knew from past experience how to take care of her health. Even though it had been atleast two years since _her_ body was used as a vessel for the heinous Mistress Nine, who had fed off _her_ life force. Hotaru was noticibly physically stronger now then she was back then. However, her body's constitution and endurance was still weak for a child her age. Despite that she no longer have seizures on a daily basis, she still loses conscious the moment she physically over exerts herself.

Also, old habits die hard for Hotaru. One of them is that blasted innocent heart of her's. Despite how the world had treated and shunned her, Hotaru could never walk away from someone who is in pain. She would do whatever she could to heal them, even exposing her powers and being considered an outcast. Another habit of her's is the overwhelming need to dress warmly for the winter. Hotaru was dressed in a black long sleeve turtleneck shirt, layered by a dark violet buttoned yarned jacket nitted by her foster mother. On her legs, she had dark stockings layering both her legs, covered by a thin, silky to the touch, knee length skirt. Which was covered by a thick black dress that started from her waist down and stopped just above her ankles. And a pair of shining pitched black shoes grounded her body to the concrete underneath her.

After a few minutes of a paced walk, Hotaru found an unoccupied park bench she could sit at. The area was rather secluded and no one was around for meters. So she settled herself down onto the bench and opened up her book to a random page. The book was titled, "The Hero's Tears." A romance/fantasy for those who are interested in knowing what topic it falls under. And its also a made up name as far as I'm concerned. The book was about a mysterious young stranger who suddenly appears in a young princess's life. She quickly falls inlove for this stranger, however, near the end, the young stranger kills a suitor of her friend. So she banishes him from her kingdom, only to learn later that the stranger didn't kill her friend's suitor, but killed an assassin who was impersonating the suitor. By the time the princess was able to apologize, the young stranger had died protecting _her_ kingdom from an evil dark force.

Hotaru had read this book nearly a dozen times. It was definitely one of her favorites. She still cries everytime she finishes the book. The hero had died thinking that the princess hated him. And she, the princess, lived the rest of her life alone and in regret. Even Michiru agrees with her that the story was tragic and cried along with Hotaru. This was another reason why this was one of her favorite books. Because she could share and relate it to one of her foster parents. They each had a copy of the book and usually they would read it together. However, today, neither of her parents were home. Haruka was at the tracks; racing against two new motorcyclist who broke her old record. Morisato Keichii, who, from Haruka's point of view, was a wimp with some guts. The other was Kinomoto Touya, who was only described as athletic by Haruka and nothing more.

Michiru was at a recital. Still hoping that eventually the music director would give her the position of first violinist, since the person who had gotten the position had gotten ill. However, she had a bit of competition. But, unlike Haruka, Michiru only had one person to compete with. A young and aspiring man with platinum color hair. Tsukishiro Yukito. Whom Michiru describes as a rather elegant and beautiful man. So, with both her parents busy, and Setsuna at the Time Gates, Hotaru decided to help herself to some freshair and reading.

_If I was the princess,_ Hotaru sighed as she reread the sad ending. _I would've never turned him away, not without listening to his explaination first..._

  


Syaoran found himself lost in what he assumed was a nearby park. He'd been so immersed with his little eight way self-debate that he'd completely lost track of where he was heading. It wasn't until he ran right into tree, a rather embarassing position for someone who was suppose to lead the most powerful family in China to find themselves in, that he realized he was lost. _To efface all my faults would mean to deny who I truly am,_ Syaoran reminded himself of a lesson he'd learned during his deep depression after Sakura. It wasn't an easy lesson, and the Li family Elders nearly 'de-heired'(once again, another word that you may only find in my illogical and twisted vocabulary list) him. Only the unconditional love of his family, added by the letters of encouragement of Yukito, Tomoyo, and, believe it or not, Touya, was Syaoran able return to himself. Or as close as anyone would think of as the real Syaoran.

_Got to find out where I am now,_ Syaoran shook his head as he stood up. _This is all your fault you know._ Came an accusing voice from the back of Syaoran's mind. _If you'd been paying attention rather then arguing with yourself, you'd be somewhere else probably having a meal to eat._

_Or if you just agreed that you're still not over Sakura,_ added another voice. This was all just great for Syaoran. Sometimes, Syaoran wonder if he should just sign himself up to a mad house. If he did, he would probably have one of the oddest cases of schizophrenia known. _This is all I need,_ Syaoran growled to himself as he quieted the voices. _Not even I trust myself to make decisions. What was that that Great Aunt Kuh Lon once told me? Indecision is the worse decision a person can make; to chose to do nothing is worse then to choose something and fail...a thousand times over._

"Maybe I really am losing it," Syaoran said as he shook his head and started to walk to where he saw a small bench, hoping that he can share the bench with the current occupant while he collected his thoughts. All he really wanted at the moment was to sit down and think to himself. He was leaving tomorrow morning at ten. A school day too. And, as usual, no one would be aware of it until he was gone. "The story of my life...I came, I saw, I run away. I might as just well be the first Li heir to write their memoirs."

Lost in thoughts and mumbling to himself, Syaoran failed to noticed how close he'd now gotten to the bench. Nor does he realize who the person, or should I say girl, was that was occupying a part of that bench. Hotaru herself, was so lost in living within the final chapters of the book, that she too failed to noticed shadow of a young chinese boy homing in closer to where she was sitting.

Now, as we're all famaliar with these events, we can only speculate that one of two different events will happen. The first: Syaoran and Hotaru would, coincidentally, look up at the same time, looking deeply into each other's eyes. Then a long, dramatic pause would ensue, soon followed by stuttering from both sides. Then, the two of them both end up blushing so hard that a tomato/tomAA-toe would seemed like a pale pair. Followed by some more stuttering and silence. Then, a big make out scene would finally happen and everybody at NASA would throw off their hats and celebrate. Followed a very detail and descriptive long lemon scene with Syaoran and Hotaru. For you hentais, I don't really like to do lemon, nor do I like the idea of teen sex, even if it is anime/fanfic. So I'll take the second option.

"This is getting me no where," Syaoran mumbled to himself outloud, not realizing it. His mind currently wondering about what his family has planned for him when he gets home. They would either send him out on another mission, or they have some more training in mind. It was as usual as clock work when it came his life. Syaoran was simply some by-product that was going to be the main horse and pony act to the public, keeping his family's 'special' attributes a secret. Though everyone says that being leader of the clan was a great honor, Syaoran was starting to think otherwise. _Some honor...you live and do what other people tell you to do..._ And so, on goes Syaoran's own little depressing line of emotional and ego battering.

Syaoran was so involved with his thoughts, once again, that he didn't realize that the occupant of the bench had looked up to inspect the owner of the shadow that was blocking her light. Until his ears picked a shy and barely audible, "Syaoran...."

  
Hotaru looked up immediately when a shadow started to wash down the pages of her book and blocking out the dim, winter days' sun's ray. It was a person. However, their entire posture and movements seemed...heavy. That was the only way she could describe it. Heavy, as if they had the weight of the entire world on their shoulder. And they might as well have too, from the way they were walking. Their head was bend towards the ground infront of them, but Hotary had a feeling that they weren't really even paying attention the ground at the moment. But even so, she felt as if she should recognize the person. The face was slightly hiddened in the shadows. So Hotaru had to squint a little to make out the face a little, but the minute Hotaru saw those deep amber eyes, she immediately knew who it was.

"Syao...Syaoran..." Hotaru whispered so lowly, that anyone else would've have mistaken it for whimper. She also didn't realize that she had said his name until Syaoran's head suddenly snapped up and those peaceful amber eyes rested on her.

"Hotaru...?" Syaoran responded nervously. "What...are you doing...here?"

_Stupid question!_ Syaoran quickly said to himself. _Does the words PUBLIC PARK mean anything to you!?_

Hotaru bowed her head, hiding her burning face from Syaoran's focused eyes. "I..." trying not to sound too shy, though the attempt was futile, Hotaru lifted her still opened book. "...reading." She paused nervously as she felt a wave of warm air wash over her. She still felt herself being under the eyes of Syaoran's lovable eyes. But the pause and thunderous space of silence between her and Syaoran was starting to make her uncomfterable. So uncomfterable in fact, that Hotaru would've welcome any kind of event to interrupt the building silence between them. A monster attack, a skywriting, ANYTHING. Something to relieve her of being the victim of Syaoran's attention and the unusual wave of warmth that was washing over her body.

Seeing that Earth was no longer at the peril of any kind of interdimensional or extraterrestrial attacks, Hotaru figured that it was going to be up to her to somehow break the silence. How, was another story. _What do I say? What do I say?_ Hotaru asked herself in her head. _What would Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama ask Syaoran?_ Hotaru threw the idea out of her mind before she even started to consider it. Parents were parent, whether they were biological or foster parents, they all seem to ask the same questions when it comes to boys. So rather then initiating a what would've been a mature adult conversation, Hotaru simply repeated the last sensible question she heard. "What're you doing here Syaoran...?" Which, undeniably, is similar Syaoran's own.

  
Syaoran nodded when Hotaru gave him her reason. _Book in hand and everything and you still couldn't figure it out?!_ Syaoran berated himself. _You might as well just ask her why she's dress like that as well._ Hammering down the irratating voice in his head, Syaoran tried to focus on the present moment outside of his head. In which he found himself within another annoying silent moment. _This can't get any worse._ Syaoran sighed silently. _Why is it that Clow cards and Sorcerors appear whenever I don't need them and never when they're actually needed!? Is there some stupid law that states that somewhere..._

Quickly trying to divert his attention anywhere other then the current silent moment, Syaoran did the only sensible thing he knew how to do without arousing Hotaru's suspicions. He allowed his magic to field out and simply did a mage scan. Though he knew that there probably wasn't anything for miles away, and since he was only limiting his scan to about a twenty meter radious, he knew he wouldn't be able to find much. Other then just the simple emitted 'memories' of the surrounding plant life and nature. _Kids falling and scraped knees, butterflies, couples being together..._ Syaoran ran off whatever 'memories' he received his surroundings. A neat trick he'd learn from his sisters when they needed some quick gossip.

Getting tire of listening already and wanting to break the silence, Syaoran started to break down his field when he felt a famaliar pull of magic in front of him. It was familair due to two very specific reasons. One, it was a spell that he'd recognize. Two, it was HIS magic that cast the spell. Syaoran though, was less then estatic about learning, or more like remembering, all this. In fact, if there had been a truck heading straight for him, Syaoran probably would've waited for the truck to hit him rather then move out of the way.

_Baka baka baka!_ Syaoran cursed as he quickly reached out with his magic to surround Hotaru's body. _How could I forget about my OWN Read spell? Idiot! Do you realize what would've happen if you were to acutually FORGET!!!?_ To angry at himself for forgetting about such an important spell, Syaoran didn't realize that along with just simply his magic, he was also allowing a bit of his empathic gift slip into Hotaru's as well. Not enough to enrage herself, but enough to feel the idea that Syaoran was feeling rather upset, or atleast starting to feel rather uncomfterable around him, giving her every right to run for the hills. Luckily for Syaoran, Hotaru would rather sooth other people's problems then run from it.

As Syaoran was getting done with finishing the 'undo' spell on his read spell, he was interrupted by a weak, "What're you doing here Syaoran...?"

Not really expecting to be interrupted in the middle of undoing his spell, Syaoran lost track of what he was just doing and refocused his attention back on Hotaru. Though to Hotaru, Syaoran had had his eyes on her the whole entire time. Syaoran though, was rather upset because he was only a few milliseconds away from undoing the Read spell he'd set in Hotaru earlier. A chance he may not get again, seeing how he was leaving tomorrow morning.

But, of course, Syaoran answered Hotaru the best way a guy would usually answer any girl's question while he was in the middle of thinking while trying to tell himself he wasn't lost. "I...well...I...err" Of course, we all remember that he didn't have any breakfast either, so at that exact moment, Syaoran's stomach decided to give his 'breadwinner' a little reminder of the reason why Syaoran left the saftey of his house and got lost in the first place. So, as Syaoran stumbled over his words, with Hotaru, head still slightly lowered to avoid actual gaze with Syaoran, listening, a low gurglish growl rumbled from Syaoran's stomach._Traitor..._ Syaoran said, to his stomach as he tried to fight down both feelings of burning ears and embarassment.

Hotaru, however, found it rather cute and started to giggle. Then, she realized that it would be read as an act of disrespect and stopped immediately. Hoping...no, praying that Syaoran wouldn't be angry with her or upset. This was the first time in about a week that he'd talked to her, and she just had to go and laugh at the most dumbest, rudest possible moment. "I'm...I'm sorry," Hotaru bowed her head even lower. "I didn't mean to laugh. Please, don't be upset with me...please don't. I really didn't mean to...I..."

Syaoran stared at the face lowered girl sitting on the bench infront of him. If it was one thing that Syaoran at least managed to learn about Hotaru during his stay here, is that she seemed to have a great desire to try and be a friend to him. Something Syaoran could do without. But then again, he'd only seen her about for about two hours tops for during the entire time he was in Juuban. And he probably only had about ten minutes overall worth of conversation with her.

_Rather then just stand there and just watch her start breaking down into tears, how about helping her out!?_ came a voice in his head. Syaoran could almost imagine an imaginary fist heading him upside the head. Feeling unsure of what to do though, despite the voice that was now in full ring in his head telling him to help Hotaru, Syaoran could only stand and watch as Hotaru slowly started to break down. Her tears being trailed by her words of earnest apologies in between her sobs. Other then Sakura, Syaoran really didn't have a lot of experiences with dealing with girls. His sisters often sought comfort in each other or with their mother. However, ironically enough, it's situations like these that makes Syaoran shined in the eyes of many people.

_Great,_ thinking as he took a step forwardly, not really knowing what he would do. Despite that almost every part of him wanted to just say, 'its your problem, get over it.' _Now what do I do...I don't know how to handle this._

_Say you're sorry would be a good start,_ whispered a voice in the back of his head. And, as before, the words shot out of his mouth before he even considers why he's saying them.

"...I'm sorry...Hotaru," Syaoran said with an unnatural calmness in his voice. Now, he really wanted to go drown himself. What in the world was he thinking? Cursing his own mouth for running off on its own. If there was a rock large enough and within reaching distance, Syaoran would've use to replace the foot he had in his mouth. However, Syaoran relaxed a little when he heard Hotaru's sobbing become less frequent. And almost all thoughts of negativity was pushed out of his mind when Hotaru gaze up into his eyes with those alluring violet eyes. Eyes that seemed haunted almost. Similar to 'The Void's' eyes. There was a touch of Tomoyo's elegance in her features, something that Syaoran had missed before. And, as before, Syaoran had to fight down an incredible urge to reach out for her hair when his eyes came across them.

Luckily though, Hotaru's voice came to his rescue of giving away his thoughts. "What are you apologizing for...?" Her voice chimed lovely with the cool autumn morning. Almost camouflaged and lost with all the musical chirppings of the birds and busy nut burying crazed squirrels in the background.(Are there squirrels in the Japan. A reader of the draft of this chapter told me they don't think there are any squirrels in Japan.)

Syaoran's mind finally snapped back to attention when he realized that he couldn't think up of a reason. _Reason! Reason! Reasonreasonreasonreason!?_ Syaoran drew up to a blank mind trying to find a reason. Any reason for an apology. After what seemed like hours of mentally berating himself, though in reality it was less then three seconds, Syaoran threw out the first thing in his mind that seemed reasonable enough.

"About the incident," Syaoran finally spilled. However, Hotaru's eye brows creased together, feeling confused and unsure of what Syaoran was talking about. "I...I didn't know about you 'condition.' Mr. Tsukare told me afterwards when you...lost consciousness. I...I'm sorry." Syaoran bowed at the waist to show that he was earnestly apologizing.

_You know,_ Syaoran heard himself said. _If you wanted to apologize, you could've just gone with your stomach growling..._ Syaoran's face nearly faulted when the thought finally came to him.

  
Hotaru stared at the respectively low bowing Syaoran before her. This...everything that had just happened had been a HUGE surprise to her. She had assumed that the reason that Syaoran had been avoiding her was because that she had gotten him in trouble. She remembered what Nurse Joy told her when she woke up and found herself in the nurse office. She had passed out on the soccer field and, this part she still can not believe, Syaoran had actually carried her to the nurse's office. Something that caused her to blush everytime she thought about her weak little sleeping form in Syaoran's big strong arms. That much would explain the even more hostile then usual treatment she had been receiving from the girls in her class. But she couldn't really blame them...she would feel a little jealous too if someone else was being carried by Syaoran.

"I...well..." before she could continue any further, Syaoran's stomach chose to protest once again. Hotaru fought down a giggle, but she let herself smiled. Hotaru thought that it was rather cute. Syaoran, however, was starting to reach for his necklace, which was actually his sword in its false form. Once was more then enough for him already, however, a second, and while he was bowing as well, that was more blow to Syaoran's already fragile ego then he really wanted. At the moment, Syaoran was debating whether to open up a hole in the earth for him to fall into or strike himself with a lightning spell.

Feeling sorry for Syaoran, Hotaru closed her book and got up. "I know this place nearby that serves great food," Hotaru said cheerfully. Apparently, Syaoran's stomach did a great job at ice breaking. As Syaoran raise himself form the bow, Hotaru realized that she was starting to sound probably just a little too forward. Dropping her cherry smile and retreating to her shy and fragile posture Hotaru added, "That is...if you would like to go there."

"Well I..." Syaoran froze to consider everything just for a moment. He wasn't totally sure of what to do. Sure he was hungry, but he also needed to get back to the house and get everything ready for tomorrow. Then again, what was there that needed to be done. He's clothes were still in its suit case, since he had taken the precaution to plan that he may not be staying for too long. In fact, the only thing that was left doing was undoing his Read spell on Hotaru. And this may be his last chance as well. _No choice I guess..._

  
It was a long walk from where the park was. But they finally came to their destination. It was an outdoor restaurant. With those huge umbrella on each table. There were people there already, but the place wasn't totally filled up. From observation, Syaoran assume that this place is somewhat an American based restaurant. Most of the costumers were easting baskets of fries, steak, burgers, cake, and other western delicacy. Though he could make out the faint aroma of herbal tea as well. The place was located within the business section of Juuban. People were bustling and hurrying to grab a bite or working. Or just plain walking.

"This is Big Mike's Food," Hotaru smiled as she gestured to the outdoor restaurant. "Me and my parents come here atleast once week together. Its our own little restaurant. I know you'll just like it."

_Big Mike huh?_ Syaoran thought to himself. _Thought so..._

"OH HOTARU!!!!"

  
Both Syaoran and Hotaru, but for the most part Hotaru, jumped when they heard the voice. They both turned to where the source of the voice came from and saw an odd looking blond girl. Her hair was done up into two seperate balls on each side of her head and the rest of her hair tailed out behind it. She was dressed in a oversize pink turtle neck sweater and green pants. Beside her, or more like being dragged _by_ her, was a guy that was considerably taller. He was dressed in a black turtleneck shirt with a green blazer, and a pair of grayish blue slacks. Syaoran could almost swear the the guy had a 'kill me' and 'envy me' smile as he was dragged by the odd blond, at an incredibly fast pace, considering that she was dragging a guy that was probably twice her weight. So fast in fact, that she actually came to a streaking stop by the time to reached them.

"HI HOTARU! WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?!" Syaoran sweat dropped as the odd blond continued to bombard Hotaru with questions of what Hotaru was doing out on her own. Hotaru could only remain speechless as her princess continued to attack her with questions. Questions that even her own mother, biological and foster, would probably never even ask her in public about. Asking about any sales Hotaru may have seen lately or any any dresses she may have bought. Around the fifty-ninth and sixty-first question Hotaru made the biggest mistake she could have made in that day. Feeling a little bit more nervous and perhaps even a bit intimidated, Hotaru reached out for the closest thing that she felt secure holding. Which just happened to be Syaoran's arm. When Hotaru realize what she had already did, it was too late to try stop. Because the moment that Hotaru made a gesture towards Syaoran, the weird 'meat-ball head' blond, that's the best way Syaoran could describe her hair style, opened a flood gate of questions at both of them.

"OHMYGOD!!! IS THIS YOUR BOY FRIEND, HOTARU?! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU NEVER TOLD US YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND! OHHHH, YOU TWO LOOK SO CUTE TOGETHER!" The meat-ball head blond pause to look around, and to catch her breath. During those quick milliseconds, she took a few things into consideration. The first was that neither Michiru, Haruka, and Setsuna weren't anywhere in sight. It wasn't just odd not to see Hotaru with any of her adopted parents around. It was astronomical. The second thing she noticed was how well dressed both Hotaru and Syaoran were. Especially Syaoran in that black turtleneck shirt, loose fitting brown slacks, and black shoes. The third, and probably most dangerous, was that they were all standing right infront of an outdoor restaurant. She quickly did the math and came up with one conclusion.

"Ohmygod....Hotaru...I can't believe you're on a date!" The blond almost cheered as she announced the fact. The four of them quickly became the center of attention as the blond continued to squeeled and chirp about Syaoran and Hotaru. "Rei, Minako, and Makoto are going to be SOOO jealous when I tell them about this." The blond continued, despite Hotaru's burning face and little attempts to stop the blond from talking. Suddenly, a great idea hit the blond straight in the head. Or, atleast to her it seemed like a great idea. "I know! Lets make this a double date! Me, Mamo-chan, you, and your date. It'll be both romantic and fun!"

Hotaru wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. Her face was so red and so hot you could've fried and egg on it. She honestly couldn't tell if her friend was trying to torture her or not. She knew that her friend's intentions were good, but did she have to be so straight forward and...well...loud? Plus, she wasn't ready for a date. The last boy that even gave her a nice glance barely survive Haruka. What would happen to Syaoran if Haruka learns that she was of on some...romantic rendezvous with their neighbor?

At that moment, one of the waiters came up to the gathering of four. "How many will there be?"

"FOUR!" The ditzy blond suddenly screamed. "It'll be four. Since _we're_ all on a double date, you better give us your best table for four. You hear me. And while we're at it, how about a double date discount as well. Maybe you can throw in some free food while you're at it. Step on it Mr. Waiter, me and my friend's are waiting."

Both guys face faults as the blond continued to 'order' the uncaring waiter around as he leads them all to their seat. Hotaru simply just followed behind the group keeping her head low and praying that no one from her school was there. Or anyone that might recognise her. The guy took out some tylenol pills and started to down them three at a time. Syaoran, not actually as self conscious as his two silent partners, simply followed quietly behind the blond.

The now relieved waiter gladly seats the four customers, and especially glad to get away from the blond. "A waiter will be with you shortly," he says as he hand them their menus. "If you need anything, just ask one of the staff and we'll try to help you in anyway we can."

With those final words, the waiter walks away and Syaoran could've swore his sharp sense of hearing picked a sigh as the waiter went. Followed by a rather rude and doesn't need repeating comment on the blond under the waiter's breath. Hotaru was seated next to Syaoran, due to the blond's 'advice.' And the guy just simply went along with it as if he was use to it. And as we all know, he probably is. If not, hey, he's got a few centuries to adapt right?

"So Hotaru," the blond started again. "Are you going to introduce us to your _boyfriend_?" Syaoran's attention returned back to the table when he heard the emphasis on the word boyfriend.

"U...Usagi...," Hotaru said nervously and her face turning redder and brighter every time that Syaoran is refered to as her boyfriend. "He...he's not my boyfriend. Syaoran is just-"

"Syaoran!?" Usagi shouted when she heard the name. "Well Syaoran, nice to meet you. I'm Tsukino Usagi and this is my boyfriend Chiba Mamoru. So how long have you been going out with our little Hotaru? Hmmm? Hmmm? Hmmm?"

"Well I...er...we..." Syaoran was trying his best not to hurt anyone's feeling. Especially Hotaru's, whose self esteem seemed low enough as it already is. _Oh man, now I remember why I never go out to eat._ Syaoran was rescued from more word stumbling when a waiter set down a basket of fries on their desk. Which Usagi started to quickly dig into and immediately forgetting the question that she'd asked Syaoran earlier. Syaoran was amaze at the speed that Usagi ate. It was probably almost as fast as Yukito's eating habit. No wait. It was actually slightly worse. Yukito at least stops in the middle of his eating when he needs to say something. Usagi was commenting on the fries and having a full blown discussion, or trying to, at the same time.

  
Hotaru had to do something. She needed to tell Usagi that this was all a big mistake. She was just showing and telling Syaoran about the restaurant when Usagi and Mamoru arrived. Also, she wasn't sure if Syaoran had enough money to by a meal for both him and her. Hotaru had a little amount of money on her, but it wasn't going to be enough here unless all she was ordering was a couple of drinks. She really doesn't eat a lot. Only bits and pieces. In fact, the biggest meal she's ever had in her life were probably just three plates of Michiru's cooking. And that was only because she had a sudden growth spurt from the age of six to eleven in one night.

Deciding that the only way to get her attention was to use the direct route, Hotaru got up over to Usagi's fries consuming form and whispered into Usagi ears. "Usagi, I don't think you understand." Hotaru whispered, trying to find the correct words in her mind so she doesn't embarrass or hurt Usagi's. "Syaoran and I were just walking around. I don't think that Syaoran...has enough money for the both of us to have a date...you understand. Right?" There, she finally told her. Usagi could probably take a hint by now and find someway for them to leave the restaurant. Well, maybe Syaoran could probably stay, since he had planned on eating out in the first place.

Usagi had listened to everyword that Hotaru had said to her. And yes, she knew what Hotaru was trying to say. Wondering what a fool that she had been for jumping into all this so soon. Hotaru was too young for a date and Syaoran, well, she don't know a lot about him, but he was too young too. _What have I done...?_ Usagi thought as she looked back in forth from Syaoran to Hotaru. Usagi stopped as she looked at Hotaru, who gave Usagi a pleading look. Usagi immediately knew what to do. She gave Hotaru a warm smile and nodded, signaling that she understood Hotaru and Syaoran's position.

"Listening up everyone," Usagi stood up and said. "In honor of Hotaru's first date and double date with me and Mamo-chan, Mamoru and I will pick up the tab on this one. So go ahead you two love birds, order whatever you want and me and Mamo-chan will pay for it okay."

Usagi winked over to Hotaru, wondering why Hotaru was on the floor. Mamoru took out the Tylenols again and just downed the whole thing. He knew that whenever Usagi said that _they_ will be treating, it usually meant that _he_ will be paying for it on his own. Syaoran just sweat drop as he watched the whole scene unfold before him.

"May I take your orders please," a waiter offered himself to the butcher, meaning Usagi. "What would you like to have?"

Syaoran made small hand gesture towards Hotaru, reminding himself to show _some_ amount of manner and not let his appetite get best of him. Plus, he really hadn't looked at the menu yet, so whatever Hotaru would order, he would as well.

Hotaru, not really getting a chance to look at the menu either, was save by her experience of coming to Big Mike's so often that she already had an order in mind. "I'll take a cheese burger with fries and grape juice please."

The waiter jolt down Hotaru's order then turned his attention back to Syaoran. Syaoran ordered the samething only he replaced the grape juice with hot chocolate. A delicacy he hadn't enjoyed in quite a while. The waiter writes down Syaoran's order then turns his attention over to Mamoru and Usagi. Mamoru decided to order two of the same order as Syaoran and Hotaru for the him and Usagi, only they had coke for their drinks instead. Which was probably for the best, because if Usagi had ordered, Mamoru wouold probably be washing dishes until Crystal Tokyo came into existance. But Usagi had her say when the waiter asked if they wanted anything sweet to follow down the food with afterward. Almost automatically, she shot up and shouted, "ICE CREAM!!"

Hotaru was hoping that Usagi would drop the absurd idea of their double date after they finished their meal. Unfortunately for the two youngster though, Usagi had plans. She wasn't going to have none of that! Whether they like it or not, Usagi was determine to get the youngest member of the Sailor Senshi paired up with Syaoran. She was very aware of how Hotaru's peers treated her, so to see her with a young boy, and an extremely handsome one at that(but not as handsome as her Mamo-chan, or so Usagi kept telling herself), she was going to get these two together no matter what.

_I'm going to get these two to kiss by the end of the week or else my name isn't-_Usagi does her Sailor Moon pose-_Tsukino Usagi, Champion of Love and Justice._

"Lets all go for a nice walk in the park together," Usagi offered as Mamoru went off to pay for the bill. It wasn't so much that Mamoru had to worry about it. Infact, considering how much money he normally spends on his dates with Usagi, this one was one of the cheapest by far. And there wasn't any monster attacks or anything to bring it on too. Just a normal couple with normal friends eating. Not that Mamoru was cheap, it was just that Usagi ususally cause a large dent on his financial life. But, he wouldn't have her any other way. If only she just realize that match-making wasn't one of her stronger points. Or any points at all if there were any.

  
Syaoran was starting to feel odd about Tsukino-san and Chiba-san. He didn't know how he missed it before, but he felt an extremely high amount of concentrated 'white' magic from both of them. Especially from Tsukino-san. Her very being seemed to rediate a humble, but powerful aura. She had a certain...characteristic about her that was attractive to Syaoran. He couldn't be sure if it was her pouty pink lips, or those diamond blue eyes of her's. But Tsukino-san was the most prettiest-

_Whoa, get a grip on yourself Li._ Syaoran mentally slap himself as he realize that he was becoming a victim of his magic once again. _Your magic is attracted to her's._ That last fact made Syaoran groan a bit. It was unbelievevable! He'd been here for nearly a month and he had somehow managed to over look such a powerful gift. Especially since it was a type of magic that his was so strongly attracted to. Also, the signature of Tsukino-san's gift similar to Yue's and Yukito's magical signatures, something that made Syaoran's pride in his magical gift sank even farther down. As if being left in the dark with Hotaru's gift didn't do enough damage already. One would've thought that once bitten you could avoid another bite.

  
It found them. Or three of them any way. The two senshi known as Moon and Saturn. Along with the Earth prince's reincarnation. Now how to drain them of their powers? It would have to find a way to force them to transform into their alter forms of course. So what could _it_ do? The crystal was still too weak to be of real use yet and _it's_ powers at the moment wouldn't really do much. What could _it_ do?

_It_ glanced ahead of the three to find something it could use as a form of attack. _It_ had to find something big and preferably strong. Then _it_ saw what it needed. A foutain, with a gigantic war horse statue spouting water out of it's mouth and into the pound of liquid below it. A idea came to _it_ and _it_ started to weave out a plan. _It_ didn't need to do any kind of confronting, just make sure that the two girls and the prince transform. _It_ didn't take notice of the fourth character that was with his victims though. He would be of little nuisance. Right now _it_ had to figure out how too force the Senshi into battle without actually going into a direct confrontation.

_Clow and the Royal families of the Silver Millinium will pay for our sufferings,_ _it_ said to the Dark Crystal as _it_ continues to trail the group. They had entered a small park area. And _it_ soon saw what it needed. Now, the games will begin. And _it_ smiles as it took out the Dark Crystal and the Crystal humms into life as a red sphere of light suddenly suurounds the black stone.

  


Syaoran was starting to feel frustrated. Not at anyone in particular. Just himself, as usual. It had been nearly two hours now and he still hadn't remove his Read spell from Hotaru. He'd been trying to find the right time, and situation, to remove the spell, but everytime he found one, Tsukino-san would suddenly turn around and hit him with a question or two. Ignoring the question didn't work either because she would just keep asking until he gave her an answer. The only actual hard part about dispelling it is that the castor and the castee have to both be physically touching. Same as in casting it as well. Though Syaoran could probably just pull Hotaru to the side and dispell the Read spell easily, he didn't want to upset Hotaru; or get Tsukino-san any more 'proof' she needed that Hotaru and him were 'seeing each other.'

_Could the situation possibly get any more awkward?_ Syaoran asked himself as he continues to trail behind Chiba-san and Tsukino-san, with Hotaru on his left side. _Well, if it can, it can't be any worse then it already is...I hope._ That did it. Fate (and Urd) had no intentions of granting Syaoran's hope at the moment. Oh no. It would be much too boring if evereyone's lives went accordingly the way they wanted it. That's why Kami-sama invented Fate to keep things...interesting. And interesting things shall get. For we all are part of a curse. A curse that a kami in mortal form had given to us in a form of a sentence; may you live in interesting times.

  


LIFE! _It_ had never felt it before. _It_ had never _felt_ anything before. _It_ had never even have a single thought before. But now, _it_ did. _It_ was given life. _It_ could now feel new and strange feelings. _It_ couldn't describe them. They blinded _it_ with and smothered _it_. At first _it_ was scared. _It_ didn't know what happened or what to do. But then, _it_ felt it. _Its_ master. THE master. The ONLY one _it_ would yield to, for the Master gave _it_ life.

The Master was telling _it_ to do something. To hurt. To scare. To attack. And _it_ will comply. _It_ threw up _its_ head and took in _its_ first full breath of air. Of life. Then, _it_ spit out the smooth cold thing that had always continued to fall out of _its_ mouth. _It_ pushed up with _its_ front legs and balanced _itself_ as best as possible to _its_ hind legs. Mane fluttering with the morning breeze, _it_ sent out a loud praise for the Master. Then, _it_ brought back down _its_ front legs and crushed the water filled ground beneath it.

"NAAAAAYYYYYYYY-HEH-HEH-HEH!!"

BOOOOMM!

---------------------------end of Chapter 3-------------------------------

I know I know, this was even LONGER!!! I'm sorry, but thanx to those who kept on reviewing sending me mail. The reasons this wasn't up sooner is because my computer suddenly got a boot sector virus, translation: A very nasty computer disease. And I had to reformat my entire computer. WAAAAHHHH!!! ALL MY WORK DESTROYED!!! WAHHHHH!!!! The second, is that I haven't been able to get on online for a while because my Internet Service Provider was down so I had wait till that got fixed up too.

I know that this may not be as good as you may have hoped for, but I hope it'll do. I lost all the original works and I had to retype over two megabytes of fanfics. And most of them aren't just this fic. I had to rewrite ALL of my fics that I was planning on putting up on here. So sorry, and review please. Or E-mail me at LPS_2@yahoo.com.


	4. chapter 4

When Strangers Meet 4 Disclaimer: I don't own CCS or Sailormoon or any other recognizable anime characters in the story...dadadada  
  
  
  
  


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________oOOo____^____oOOo________  


When Strangers Meet  
by  
Neohowler

Chapter 4

"NAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY-HEH-HEH-HEH!!"

BOOOOMM!

A wave of vibration rippled throughout the park. The loud horse-like roar punched around and through the ear. Mamoru and, surprisingly, Hotaru instinctively threw themselves infront of Usagi as if they were expecting an assassin to pop out to take their princess. Syaoran, though noted both the action of Mamoru and Hotaru, ignored the act. Being more experienced in dealing with the abnormal forces of magic and huge falling man made objects that may pass for the reason of that vibration, Syaoran simply stretched out his PMS(please refer to chapter 2 for the explanation). Stretching it as much as he can to assure both accuracy and certainty that magic was the work of the incident and not just another contruction site accident.

_Yea right,_ Syaoran said to himself as he continued to scan the areas of the park that was within eye sight of him. _If that was an accident, then I'm going to marry Meilin._ There was definetly something not right here. Syaoran felt it in every bone in his body. It was old, ancient. But strangely, familiar for some reason. As if he had faced it before.

_Too the right!_ Syaoran turned his head just in time to see a several people running and screaming coming their way. However, their screams were smothered by an earth shattering boom and a loud roar-like neigh. The source of the neigh slid into sight on the concrete path of the park. It was a huge stone horse. The size of a mini-van. Its stone mane fluttered to the breeze in the air as it kicked of the ground with it's front legs and let out another roaring scale neigh. It's red eyes glowed with an unnatural light as drool oozed from it's like water from a fountain.

_Wait a minute,_ Syaoran thought as he took another glance at the drool that fell freely from the gigantic stone horse's mouth. It was too clear to be drool. Also, drool didn't flow out as smoothely as it did from stone horse. It only took less then a second for Syaoran to piece the puzzle into his head. _It is just water!_

The Stone horse only needed to gaze at the four for a moment before it totally went berserk. As if something in it's mind suddenly clicked and set the thing on kill. The red eyes now gave off misty trail of light. The water/drool suddenly stopped flowing out of its mouth as the stone horse come-to-life threw it's head up then threw it back down. Leveling it's gauge to where Hotaru and Mamoru stood protectively infront of Usagi, it did something that neither of them predicted. The stone horse's mouth opened and out came a blast of water, targeted straight for the three reincarnated royalties of the Silver Millinium.

Acting on an instinct that Mamoru had done so many times in the past, he reached to grabbed Usagi and pulled her aside as he leapt away from the blast. However, Mamoru forgot all about Hotaru, who was frozen in fear of the sight both the stone horse and the water blast. The water blast that struck her with the force of a tackling human right in the the middle of her chest. Hotaru flew back from the all too painful blow to only have her body flip in mid-air and her front slammed into the concrete. Fortunately for Hotaru, the pain only lasted for a brief moment before she blacked out from the pain of both blows. Unfortunately, that left her unconscious and immobilize of getting herself to safety from the now charging horse that was heading straight for her laying form. And the stone monstrousity come to life have no intention of letting her get up anytime soon.

  


This was bad. Syaoran stood to the side as a water spout slammed into Hotaru and knocked her out. He knew he had to do something. But Syaoran couldn't decide what. He couldn't use his magic in public because that would ruin his entire cover. Whoever was causing all this had atleast a considerable amount of magic if they could give a 'fasle-soul' to an inanimate object. He had to keep himself undercover until he knew what he was facing. But if he couldn't use magic, he didn't stand much of a chance against the over grown stone colt.

Syaoran felt the Earth shook violently. The horse was rushing straight to Hotaru's unconscious form. Shaking and cracking the concrete beneath it as it stampeded towards the helpless girl that was straight infront of it. _She'll be trampled!_ Deciding that the decision was already made for him, Syaoran darted for Hotaru. Forgetting his own safety. He had to get her away from it. _Faster, faster, faster...._ Speed, running, sprinting, jogging. Those were the words use to describe what Syaoran was doing. All of them may mean different things, but they all relate to the same motion.

The stone sculptured runner raced onwards, paying no heed of the fast approaching boy that was speeding from the side of its unconscious victim. It would trample them both. There was no way that the child could get both of them away in time before they meet the bottom of its stoney hooves. It was almost there. It was right over them now. Both human children. Just one more gallop then it will feel the softness of flattened human flesh under it's hooves. Now they die-

However, it didn't feel the soft flattened flesh of the human children beneath its hooves. Only hard concrete.

Syaoran scooped up Hotaru's body into his arms. The stone horse was right over them now. Its eyes burning with the passion and desire of killing. All it needed was one more step with its stone rough tree trunk legs. Syaoran had to move and FAST. He couldn't run out of the way, not with Hotaru in his arms. He would have to make a gamble. Syaoran had noticed the huge gaps in between and underneath the horse's legs. It was all Syaoran would have to work with. He had to make a leap in between the legs. Those were his and Hotaru's only chance.

Pulling Hotaru closer to him, to make them both as small as possible, Syaoran pivet his feet to right where the horse was coming from. Coiling his legs, Syaoran stared at the horse's stoney underneath. Then he pushed himself away from where he and Hotaru were, keeping as low as possible but high enough not to touch the ground beneath. With large plate size hooves slamming to the ground on both side of him, kicking up dirt and shattered concrete, Syaoran pulled Hotaru even closer. When he felt that he'd reached the climax of the small arc of their leap of luck (:cough: double meaning :cough:), Syaoran curled his body around Hotaru and felt the smooth and rough 'skin' of horse's underneath graze the back of his head.

Then Syaoran felt the odd, but familiar, sensation of his body somersaulted through the air. Underneath and past the huge crushing pillers of the stone horse's legs. Landing on his back with Hotaru laying across his stomach Syaoran let out a breath of relief as he realize that he hadn't been squished. But the moment of relief was short lived when Syaoran's mind screamed for him to get both him and Hotaru out of the way of the Horse's slow turning form.

  
Mamoru had to hand it Syaoran. If nothing else, the kid got guts. The stunt Syaoran pulled was next to crazy. Mamoru wasn't even sure he was willing to attempt such a crazy stunt like that. Even if he'd somehow did, Mamoru wasn't even sure if he could pull it off without getting stumped in a human pancake. Not that he wouldn't try if Usagi's life was on the line, but if he had been in Syaoran's situation, he would've most likely tried to shield her with his body.

"Syaoran!" Mamoru shouted, catching the running Syaoran's attention. "Get Hotaru away from here NOW! Me and Usagi will take care of ourselves!"

Syaoran nodded and then dashed off with Hotaru.

Usagi however, didn't think it was brave. She thought that it was just ALL TOO ROMANTIC! Hotaru, unconscious and helpless, is wisk off to safety by her true love. That was how Usagi viewed the entire situation. Of course, she was probably going to chew Syaoran's head off for pulling off such a crazy thing later. Also, if Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna ever find out what Syaoran did, he would be killed. But for now, it was definetly one of the bravest thing she'd ever seen.

Then, remembering that stone horses going on a rampage wasn't a normal thing Usagi pushed herself out of the arms of Mamoru. "Moon Cosmic Power!"

  
_It_ smiled as it watched the blond transformed into a senshi. All was going according to its plan. The Dark Crsytal floated and glowed brightly in between the palms of _its_ hand. The Dark Crsytal was absorbing the energy of the senshi. She may not know it now, but the more she transformed, the more powerful the Dark Crystal was going to gain. _It_ ordered the Stone creation to not kill the senshi right away. _It_ would first drained away all of the senshi's energy. _It_ would send the stone horse to attack and hurt the senshi though. After all, if the senshi was injured, she need to use up more of her powers to heal herself. That would mean more power to drain!

  


"Hold it right there!" Eternal Sailormoon(from now on will be refered to as just plain Sailormoon) said. "Parks are a place where people come to paint, exercise, and go on double dates. It isn't for creatures of evil like you to destroy. I am Sailormoon, Champion of Love and Justice" The blond Senshi does an assortment of crazy movemens with her arms then goes into her usual pose. "And in the name of the moon, I will punish-AHHHH!"

Sailormoon had to jump out of the way as the stone horse suddenly charged at it. "Hey no fair!" Sailormoon shouted as she got back on her feet and turned to face the turning horse. "I didn't even get to finish my speech!"

The stone horse didn't care for speeches. It had recieved its orders from the Master. It was to fight this puny human. Hurt it. Scare it. But not kill. Those were the Master's orders. It would obey. It slammed it's feet into the concrete, hard! The ground shook and cracked. The force of the stomp was so strong that there was visible wave vibration rippling outward from the where the horse stood. Sailormoon, already being naturally clumsy on her own two feet, was no match for the Ritcher scale wave as it shook the ground beneath her. Seeing that the puny human was down at the moment, the stone horse decided to make sure the she wouldn't be moving for a whlie.

Sailormoon fought to get up. She had to get up and kick this giant horse's butt. Not only did it ruin her double date with Mamoru, Hotaru, and Syaoran. But it had also interupted her special Sailormoon speech. That wasn't suppose happen. It was transform, speech, then fight the monster. This thing was going down. But first, she had to recovered from the painful water blast that had just punched her right in her mid-section. Knocking all the wind and air out of her lungs and throwing her back several feet.

Now that the puny mortal was down, it would hurt her. And hurt her bad. That would please the master very much. It would start first by trampling and breaking her legs. That would stop her from getting away. If it could laugh, it would've. It would make the puny human suffer to please its master. It will praise the Master with the human scream. The stone horse charges forward to the down and dazed Sailormoon. Going at neck breaking speed, the stone horse quickly lessened the distance between it and the 'puny human.' Determined to please its master, this time, it will feel crushed flesh underneath its hooves. It would smell blood.

Mamoru finished transforming into Tuxedo Mask just in time to see Sailormoon get punched off her own feet by the stone horse's water blast attack. "Sailormoon!" Tuxedo Mask had to hurry to her side. He had to protect her. The rocky hide steamroller with legs charged for his love. Tuxedo Mask knew that there was only one way to save his love. He would have to use the old routine leap out of nowhere and carry her off to safety routine. A routine that Sailormoon, for some odd reason, never seem to get tired off.

Pushing of the soles of his shoes Tuxedo Mask darted towards the now wailing Sailormoon. He didn't have time for quick chitchats, the stone monstrousity was only a few feet away from both of them now. And Mamoru had no intentions of dying so young. Besides, he had a daughter to have, raise, and a planet to help rule over in few hundred years. He wasn't just about to give up those chances right now just because some over grown horse statue decided that it was going to break some public properties today. The moment he felt Sailormoon in the hold of his strong arms, Tuxedo Mask jumped and increased the distance between them and the water drooling stone horse.

  
Syaoran wasn't sure how far he was from the scene of the attack. All he knew was that he'd been running for almost three minutes now, with an unconscious girl being carried in his arms. Who, by the way, was surprisingly heavier then she appeared to be. But not by much and better toned then she appeared to be. Behind him, Syaoran could hear the sounds of the horse's giant and heavy hooves stomping the ground. Infact, he can faintly feel the vibration from all the stomping.

Stopping for a rest when he was certain that Hotaru would be safe, Syaoran eased her down slowly against the trunk of a tree. Taking this time to do two different things. One, he was scanning and healing whatever minor scrapes and bruises that Hotaru had recieved from the water spout. Second, he was undoing his Read spell. Syaoran carefully placed his right hand against the side of Hotaru's face and started to undo the spell. Mean while, sending his magic throughout her veins, healing the little damaged that the attacked had caused. Though there wasn't much in that. The only really major damaged that Hotaru recieved was a bruise to the right side of her cheek. Which Syaoran easily healed with his limited healing ability.

After he had finished with both magical chores and made sure that Hotaru was in a comfterable position, Syaoran started to head back the way he came. Going to see if there was anybody else back there that may need help. Or if there was a way that he could stop this. However, rather the taking the ground route of which Syaoran had carried Hotaru, he decided that he should get a much better view of the area. Leaping onto the first branch that he saw that was strong enough to support his weight, Syaoran started to hop from one branch to another. Reaching out and grasping then swinging on branches when he could not find a branch strong enough to hop too. Syaoran had long ago been taught how to 'tree walk.' It really didn't require any magic, just timing and a good eye. Though to normal people, it might as well be magic. Because though to Syaoran, he may be barely able to stumbled around onto one tree branch to the next, to others who possess no knowledge of this ability, were given the illusion of a man gracefully gliding on one tree limb to the next.

  
Hotaru awoke to find herself leaning against something hard and rigid. The last thing she remember was the ground rushing right at her. Her clothes were wet, but she recalled the water attacked from the stone horse. The stone horse! Hotaru quickly realized that Mamoru and Usagi were no where in sight. Nor was Syaoran. Did they leave her there? Were they okay? Were they hurt? She didn't know. What she knew was that there was a monster on the loose and though the outers rarely fought along side the inners, she was going to take this thing down and protect her princess from harm.

"Satarun Star Power!" The moment she uttered those words, she felt the transformation from Tomoe Hotaru to Sailor Saturn initiate. It started with at the tip of her fingers as she felt power tingle from them. Then, her transformation pen materialized into her hand. Grasping onto the pen with her hand, she started to feel her cloth slowly melting away as a glitterying light emitted from her skin. A circle drew itself at her the base of her ankles and ribbons of all colors shot out of the circle. They encircled her and wrapped themselves around her body. Quickly materializing to her white senshi outfit with a dark violet skirt that seemed just a little too short. A wicked polearm faded comfterably into the palm of her hands as her lips was quickly covered in a lovely shade of pink.

Tomoe Hotaru was no longer there anymore. There was only Sailor Saturn. The senshi of life and death. The bringer of silence and the most feared senshi of all. Holding powers both great and terrible. She plan to use those powers to protect her future queen.

Saturn didn't have to run back to the scene of the attack. She just teleported. And not a moment too soon as well. Tuxedo Mask and Sailormoon were both up against a tree. The concrete itself had probably seen better days. It looked as if a wrecking ball had been dropped several times onto the poor thing. With cracks, holes, roses, and eroded earth thrown all over the place. Several trees were knocked down and there were several puddles of water spread throughout the entire battle scene.

Tuxedo Mask was holding a wailing Sailormoon in his arms while using his cape to shield them both from the horse's relentless water blast. Saturn knew that Tuxedo Mask cape would give sooner or later. Cloth was still cloth no matter what kind of magic you may have on it. Simple as paper, scissor, rock. Where Paper loses to scissor. Or fire. Or even water.

"Silence Wall," Saturn said in a voice that was void of pratically all emotions, except concern. That was Saturn. She was still Hotaru and she can choose to show her emotions. But she was now Sailor Saturn, the bringer of Silence. She had a professional image to maintain.

A transparent white dome suddenly appeared around the area of where Tuxedo and Sailormon stood. The horse's water blast stopped short in front of its face, where the edge of the Silence wall was. Deciding it was time to make her presence known to them all, Saturn walked out from behind the shadows of the trees, an area that was inside the Silence Wall, with the Silence Glaive held and leveled at the stone horse. "I am Sailor Saturn and in the name of Saturn, I will punish you!"

"Sailor Saturn!" Sailormoon exclaimed, a little surprise. It had been a while since Sailormoon had had the pleasure of meeting the most powerful senshi of them all. And even though Hotaru was with them when they were attacked, Sailormoon didn't expect Hotaru to make such a quick recovery. Healing powers and all. "How...what're you doing here? You're hurt! Aren't you?"

"I'm fine Sailormoon," Saturn smiled at Sailormoon. "Thank you for asking. Now to take care of this thing."

  
_It_ couldn't be anymore happier then it was at the moment. Not just one, but two senshi. And their little formally dress savior as well. The Crsytal had immediately started to drain the new senshi the moment she appeared. It was already draining from the blond senshi. The process was slow but sure.

_It_ needed to find a way to break through the force field though. It was interfering with with the Crystal's 'rejuvenation' process.

_Destroy the force field!_ It told _its_ creation. The stone horse quickly followed order, hoping to please the Master. It started to bang against the force field with its front legs. Ramming into, hoping to weakened the damn thing so that it may hurt the new puny thing that had appeared as well. The Master would be please if it was to hurt all three of them.

_Use your water blast!_ The figured referred to as the Master told its creation. Remembering a trick that Clow had taught it a long time ago; that no matter how strong a shield may be, all one needed to do was strike a spot hard enough for a certain number of times to destroy it. _And strike the point several times._

The creature, eager ever so to please its master, unleashed several hard blast of water at the silence shield. After the third blast, the shield gave and the stone horse rushed into the area that the Silence Wall had protected. Sailor Saturn, a little shock from the fact that her shield had fell so easily, wasn't able to avoid be rammed into by the stone horse. Saturn felt that air squeezed out of her lungs and her ribs pushed to the point of nearly shattering. Had she not transformed, that attacked would've killed her. Which didn't seem like a bad idea at the moment, considering the crushing pain that her chest was in. She felt herself release the Silence Glaive from her hand. The ground disappeared beneath her feet as her body folded and flew back. The next thing she felt was her back slamming into something incredible hard, which was followed by an ear piercing 'SNAP!'

"Sailor Saturn!" Sailormoon screamed as Saturn flew right past her and Tuxedo Mask. Forgetting the danger for the moment, Sailormoon ran to the form of Sailor Saturn, which was sliding off of a tree that had snapped back from the force of the blow. Kneeling beside her fallen friend, Sailormoon takes Saturn's limp hand into hers. "Sailor Saturn are you okay?"

Before Saturn could answer, Sailormoon's eardrums were occupied by Tuxedo Mask shouting, "Sailormoon look out!"

  
Syaoran arrived at the scene of the battle surprise to find two of the senshi and a man dressed in a tuxedo with a cape fighting against the stone monstrousity. Using the shadows of the leaves and branches as cover, Syaoran began to mentally take in the situation. From his perch, he had a better perseption of how the battle was going. It was pretty much one sided so far. The horse was winning. Observing the senshi more closely, Syaoran couldn't help but think that hey look oddly familair. It was like he knew them but he didn't know them. Kind of like trying to remember a certain smell. You know you've smelt it before, but you can't remember where, when, and what it was.

_Concentrate on how to get rid of the horse Syaoran,_ he reminded himelf. _Concentrate on the horse. Search for its weakness._ Syaoran switched to his mage sight(basically a kinda of special sense that helps a magician find magical energy a lot easier then just scaning for it. Kind of like what night vision goggles are to us) to studied the horse more carefully. There was an aura of complexity surrounding the horse. Several complicated matrices and webs were lined throughout its entire body. To add to the problems, the pattern of magic was fluxing and changing patterns constantly. So which means he couldn't undo the spell. However, there was something else in the complicated web maze of magic that may help. It was faint, and barely visible to his mage sight, but Syaoran could make out a small trail of magic leading from the horse into some bushes on the opposite side.

_Attack the archers, not the arrows._ Syaoran lectured himself. If he couldn't stop the horse, maybe he can figure out a way on how to at least stop catch the castor. Syaoran withdrew back into the thickets of the trees and started to make his way around the battle to the opposite side. Stepping over one branch to another and silently gliding threw the tree tops like a ghost through air. With only the movements of his shadow that may appear every now and then due to the tiny wash hole of lights that escaped capture from the leaves betrayed Syaoran's position. While he tree walked, Syaoran pulled of his necklace and focused his magic into the piece of green jade that was tied to it with a thin red string. A moment later, Syaoran held in his hand a sharp double-side blade, with his necklace attached at the bottom of the hilt.

Syaoran was getting closer to the source of the magic. He could feel it now and he didn't like it one bit. It made him queasy and nauseous in the stomach. It wasn't just that the magic was dark magic. Syaoran had no qualms against dark magic, he's mother's element is darkness. No, this magic transcended beyond the boundraries of darkness. This magic was filled with negative energy.

In front of him. That was what his senses told him. In front, beneath him, and to the side. He could make out a silhouette of a person, but that was just it. It had a tall, scrawny male frame. However, the face and most of the body was cloaked in the shadows of the trees. Syaoran felt the raw negative energy that the figure radiated. Dark, strong, cold, solid. It formed an extremely sour taste in the back of Syaoran mouth. That was proof enough that whatever energy this thing was weilding, it wasn't safe. Syaoran fastened the grip he had on his sword as he leapt down from the tree tops and down to where he felt the negative energy. "Kiiiyaaaahhh!!"

  


Sailormoon turned to see Tuxedo Mask tackled, or attempted to tackle, the standing stone horse from the side. Tuxedo Mask didn't know what came over him. Then again, he never does when Sailormoon's life was at stake. All he knew was that he had to do whatever he could to protect her and Sailor Saturn. So as the horse reared itself, he rushed at it from the side and managed to get a good grip around the stone creature's neck. However, he knew he couldn't get that thing into submission, much less stop gravity from working and bringing the hooves of the creature down on Sailormoon and Sailor Saturn. Remembering a trick he saw in an old samurai movie, Tuxedo Mask reached into his blazer and pulled out his cane. Still keeping his grip on the damn thing's neck, which was more rigid and sandy then it seemed, he leveled his cane and aimed the bottom half at a nearby tree. When Tuxedo Mask was certain that the cane would hit the tree, he extended the cane by mental will.

The extended cane reached and pushed against the tree, upsetting the reared up horse's center of gravity and pushed it back. Unfortunately though, unlike in movie, the horse didn't fall flat on its back. Instead, it twisted its body to the side and reset all four of its legs onto the concrete ground beneath it. The sudden twist of its body also managed to swing Tuxedo Mask body over and saddled him right onto the back of the horse.

It reared itself up onto its hind legs and neighed in rebellion to the rider on its back. Tuxedo Mask, now only concerned with how he's going to survive this, grabbed a hand full of the horse's mane. Which was strangely soft to the touch compared to the sandy roughness of the rest of its body. Tuxedo Mask held on for dear life as the stone horse started to kick up and down with its body. Trying to toss off the unwanted rider. Twisting and turning its neck as it tried to loosened the grip that Tuxedo Mask had on its mane.

Tuxedo Mask could only grunt silently in pain as his body was rocked violently back and forth. Left and right. Up and down. The stone horse not giving up its attempts to off the uninvited rider. Tuxedo Mask grasping the mane of the stone horse as his body was momentarily tossed into the air then back down again onto the back of the horse only to have the process repeat itself all over again. And again. And again. And again. Needless to say, Mamoru butt, was really suffering. As his body continued to banged itself up against the sandy hide of the stone horse.

Everything seemed to be taking itself in slow motion to Tuxedo Mask. Even the movements of the horse's attempts to throw him off. Sailormoon's wailing and screaming was unheard by him because all he can hear was the sound of his own yelling and the loud booms that the horse's hooves made everytime it struck the ground. His hand instinctively gripping even tighter onto the horse's mane as he tried to pull himself closer to the horse. Hoping that by doing this, his chances of falling off wouldn't increase. All the while, the crazed stone horse rocked away like a bull at a rodeo.

The horse reared itself higher then it normally did, to the point where it started to lean backwards. But just when it seemed as if it was going to fall backwards, it threw it's balance and weight forward. The incredible switch in weight and balanced caused the horse's stone hooves to chizeled into the concrete earth almost two feet. It also sent out a huge shock wave that even lifted both Sailormoon and Saturn three feet into the air before bringing them both down. Tuxedo Mask wasn't as lucky. Due to the horse's sudden forward jerk downward, his body was still in mid-tossed when the horse's hooves hammered the earth. Before Tuxedo Mask could recover, the horse threw its head back and the back of the stoney gallaper's head slammed into Tuxedo Mask face. The suddenly blast of pain blinded and stunned Tuxedo Mask for a moment. However, a moment was enough for him to loosen his grip on the horse's mane. The minute the stone horse felt Tuxedo Mask's grip loosened, it threw its head back down, flipping Tuxedo Mask over its head and slamming him into the concrete.

It stood triumphantly over the unconscious prince of Earth's form. It would hurt, it would attack. For the Master, it would do anything. It raised one of its hooves directly over Tuxedo Mask's, who wasn't masked at the minute, head. It would finally feel the pleasure of flattened flesh under its hooves. It would finally be able to please the Master. It ignored the pleads from the other puny mortal. Their turn will come soon enough, at the moment, it was going to do what it will to the one underneath it. For the Master.

Sailormoon watched in agony as the stone horse brought down its ten ton hoove on Tuxedo Mask. She was helpless to do nothing. She couldn't even called upon her power fast enough to stop it from attacking. It was her fault that Tuxedo Mask had jumped onto the stone horse in the first place. If she had been paying more attention rather then just going off without thinking, Tuxedo Mask wouldn't even be in this predicament. It was all her fault. Her fault.

The leg was brought down. Five hundred pounds of carved stone went down towards Mamoru's face. All Sailormoon could do, was watch.

Down, down, down. With each passing moment the horse's hooves dropped closer to the unconscious Tuxedo Mask. Then...then the horse's descending hooves paused. Stopping by just a hair's width from Mamoru's nose. Sailormoon, well, Sailormoon past out from relief.

  
Something was wrong. That was all the stone horse thought at the moment. It had frozed in its attempt to squish the human scum. It couldn't feel the Master. It couldn't feel the Master any longer. Where was the Master?! Where was the Master??!! What was it suppose to do? Hurt, scare, destroy! Those were the Master's last command. That is what it'll just have do. It will please the Master. It will prove that it is worthy of the Master's attention.

  
"Kiiiyaaaahhh!!"

_It_ saw a flicker of light dropped down from the lush greenery of the trees. A blade. It had been around long enough to know how a conceal blade looked like. _It_ leapt out of the way of the blade's course. _It_ was no fool to search for a glory. Not now, _it_ was too occupied to deal with fighting. Also, _it_ can recognize a seasoned warrior when it sees one. And this figure before it was one. _It_ couldn't make out the face or any other feature though. Not even the scent. They managed to sneak up on it silently without _it_ knowing. That itself is a feat that was hard enough to succeed at. The face was unnaturally wrapped in shadows and the scent was mixed with hundreds of other scent that was in the air. _It_ wasn't even sure if the outlined of the figured before it was their true form. Whoever or whatever this person or thing was, they were strong.

"Who are you?" _It_ ask the form. "What quarrels do I have with you?"

The figure's only response was to lash out with its swords again. _It_ barely dodged out of the way. Putting some more distance between _it_ and the figure, _it_ summoned upon the newly collected power of the Dark Crystal. _It_ reached out with it's magic, grasping onto the nodes and leylines of magical energy that emitted from the Dark Crystal. Holding onto them and pulling them into _it_. Adding their power to _its_ own. However, it still wasn't enough. Not enough. _It_ had enough energy to hold off the attacker, however, _it_ couldn't afford to use that power on something so trivial as this. _It_ was smarter then that. Also, _it_ had no idea how much power the Crystal had accumulated from the battle. For all _it_ know, _it_ could've used up all the energy that the Crystal had sapped up from the battle. _It_ couldn't afford to gamble with a chance like this right now. So _it_ made the most logical choice there was. Drop everything and retreat.

Syaoran had managed to catch the castor off guard. However, Syaoran didn't count on it being so fast. His opponent had managed to evade two attacks from Syaoran and had put atleast fifteen feet of space between them. Syaoran then noticed a floating jewelry that hummed with power off to the side. Syaoran could feel the considerable amount of dark magic that rolled off from the jet black jewel. It was almost dripping with negative energy. The more Syaoran stared at it, the stronger the sourness in the back of his mouth got. Syaoran felt the hairs on his neck stand on end from the enormous amount of power it was radiating. It was strong and it seemed to be getting stronger with every moment. Syaoran couldn't let it. It was dangerous enough as it is, he would have to destroy.

Several tendrils of dark energy shot out from the red aura that surrounded the crystal. Syaoran didn't have to be told what that was. Something was drawing power from the crystal. Syaoran traced the barely visible strings of light wormed their way through the air and into the shadow clad figure. The surrounding area suddenly grew a little darker and dimmer. Light was being distorted all around the figure. It was collecting light energy. That much Syaoran knew, because he can see the 'bend' in the air around the figure. Space bent inwards, distorting the form of the figure even more until it tarted to whirl around.

_What is he doing-_ Before Syaoran could contemplate more about the spell being cast though, a blinding flash exploded from the figure. Syaoran instintively brought his arms over his eyes and looked away. _A Light Flare! Damn, I should've known!_ Catching on to its plan, Syaoran leapt over to where he last saw the figure stand. Slashing his sword wildly as he cut through the air. The flash didn't last too long. The flash explosion probably lasted only three secounds. But it seems that those precious second were all it needed to get away. It took a moment for Syaoran to gather his thoughts. Syaoran was reluctant to admit that using a simple such as a Light Flare to distract him was clever. Drawing in power from the crystal and tricking Syaoran that it was going to cast a bigger much more dangerous spell.

_That Gem!_ Syaoran's memory finally recalled the floating jewelry and the incredibly dark force it radiated. Syaoran turned to the area of where the crystal was a moment ago, only to find nothing but empty space. Extending his PMS outward as far as he can, Syaoran tried to search for it. He know the presence that the gem gave off and tried to homed into that certain presence. Only to find no trace of it anywhere within two blocks. _Dammit! They both got away! Arrrggh! This is bad. Real BAD!_

"WAAHHHHH!!!!"

"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!"

KRACK! BOOM!

_What in the world is going on out there?!_ Syaoran swore as he was interupted from his self berating thoughts. Putting aside the two new factors for the moment, Syaoran leapt onto a nearby branch and looked out into the fight scene. Tuxedo Mask was unconscious, so was Sailor Saturn, and Sailormoon was trying to avoid being turned into road kill. Keyword was trying. Sailormoon was not immuned to Usagi's clumsiness and klutzy foot work. So though she managed to evade a charge from the stone horse, she ended up tripping over her own foot and falling down on her bottom.

The stone horse, seeing a perfect chance to finally achieve in its mission quickly galloped at the down Sailormoon. Neighing in truimph as it stampeded onward. Causing giant fissures along the already chapped ground as it slammed its hooves on the concrete.

_These are the famous Sailor Senshi?_ Syaoran sweatdropped as he listened to Sailormoon's wailings of negotiations, all being ignored by the fast incoming stone horse. It became rather clear to Syaoran now that the senshi, who Syaoran recognize as Sailormoon from the descriptions that he'd been briefed on, didn't have anything special planned. Syaoran also became less and less sure that the other senshi would suddenly popped out of the bushes any minute now and attacked the stone horse. _Guess I have to help..._

Calling one of his wards from his little reserve in a sub-space pocket, Syaoran closed his eyes started to concentrated on the sound of stone horse's repetitive movements. Memorizing the patterned movements carefully in his mind and silently repeating it the rhythm outloud. Testing his timing and synchronizing the pattern in his mind with the movements of the horse. "Right front forward, left back foward, left front back, right back back, head bobbing forward, head bobbing back......NOW!"

Syaoran frizbee throw the ward straight infront of the horse's pass. It spun and wheeled about as it saucered flatly right under the horse's heavy front right hoove as it begun to plant it against the cracked concrete. The spinning ward caused a slight shift in the horse's rhythmic movements. It had pushed the right front leg a little more to the left, where the raised front left leg was starting descend. Only to be tripped over its own leg. The stone horse fell face forward and slammed into the concrete, throwing up dust as it began to slide foward. The stone body of the horse soon followed as it slammed against the ground adding more dirt and dust to the air. Unfortunately, though the horse was no longer running, it was still wasn't stop either. It was sliding along on the concrete on its side. Sparks flying from where the rough stoney hide of the sculptured horse banged against the friction of the concrete.

_I hope that thing is more horse then it is stone,_ Syaoran prayed as the wall of dust and dirt started to clear. _Or else, the world is going to be one senshi short._

  
Sailormoon was down, again...sigh. And as usuaul, it was due to her own clumsiness. And now she was going to die. No wait, she wasn't going to die. She was going to be trambled, stomped, drooled over, and then she'll die. "WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! I can't die! I never got a chance to get married! I'm never going to get to star on my own sitcom! I still haven't beaten the latest game of Sailor V! This ISN'T fair!"

Backing up as fast as she can, which was surprisingly fast, Sailormoon tried to reason with it. "Can't we talk about this Mr. Stone Horse. I mean I'm sure we can work out something. How about I get you a nice big stone carrot and you let me destroy okay?" Of course, Sailormoon was just as good as a negotiator as Usagi was a matchmaker. Meaning, there was zero talent, if any at all, in that area.

The stone horse was at full speed now and heading straight for Sailormoon, who had just backed up against a tree. _This...this is it! But I can't give up, I'm Sailormoon! I'm suppose to become Neo-Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo...it can't end like this. It just can't!_ However, her little mind whine did nothing to change the situation. The horse was only several yards from her now And unless she was able to suddenly cover thirty feet within a two seconds, she was a goner. If she'd ran, the stone feudal war horse stature would've just change course heading straight for her. No matter what she did, she was still going to get flattened. She didn't have the ability to create a force field like Sailor Saturn...or if she could, she didn't know how to yet. She lacked Tuxedo Mask's precise judgements and reflexes, so she could try riding this thing. She was going to become Sailor-Trampled-Moon!

Or she would've have not a yellowish blur shot out from the top of the trees and struck the horse's front ankle, or to Sailormoon it looked that way. Sailormoon watched, feeling a bit hopeful and a lot scared, as the stone horse lost its balanced and collapsed into the ground. Kicking a cloud of dust as it started to slide on its side. However, just because the horse was no longer running didn't mean that it had stop. It was skidding on its side, still going at neck breaking speed as it sped towards Sailormoon.

As it slid against the ground, it could feel its skin burned against the friction of the earth. It was still moving, moving towards its target. It will prove itself worthy yet! It will succeed! It will ram the pesky human with it's entire body! However, before it can do anything else, its body started to rotate. It turned slowly at first. Changing from head first to skidding with its back first heading straight for Sailormoon. Then its body spun again, this time, it belly was now leading it.

Despite the popular belief that monsters were monsters and that was that. This one just happened to be a horse. It may be a stone horse, originally created to be nothing by an unmoving rock spouting out water out of its mouth. However, it still was a horse. That means that its basic instincts were similar to that of a real horse. And in times of panic, it would react physically and mentally as any horse would. And at the moment, the horse within the stone creation come to life was telling it to kick its legs, neigh, and fight against the turn of its body. So that was just what it started to do. It started to kick all four of its leg wildly as if it was running. Neighing out loud in panic and trying to fight against the direction that its body was spinning. Of coures, this all resulted in it turning every faster and more out of control.

Sailormoon lucked out, as usual, when the horse started to spin on its side as it skidded off course from her. Sliding and spinning out of control, the stone horse's journey ended with several loud and thunderous booms as it rammed through trees and rocks. Or what could be assumed to be trees and rocks since no one could really see through the thick cloud of dust that the horse had kicked up while sliding helplessly.

When the cloud of dust finally settled, it revealed a struggling and still neighing stone horse trapped underneath several brokened and splintered trees.

"W-wow!" Sailormoon said as she as she observe the site of detruction before her. "This is going to cost the city a lot of money to fix...hope I don't have pay for it."

Remembering that she was suppose to take care of the monster, Sailormoon quickly refocused her attention to the trapped horse of rock. "For the crimes against this beautiful park and the forces of justice, I Sailormoon will punish you!" Closing her eyes to summon the power within her, Sailormoon started to glow. She felt a part of her change, mature a little. She no longer felt ditzy and naive. Instead, she felt confident and very very humbled. Using a voice that sugar sweet and smooth as milk, Sailormoon chanted softly, "Moon...beautiful...meditation." (Okay, I'm not sure about this attack, since I haven't read any of the Eternal Sailormoon Manga...so feel free to correct me on her Eternal Sailormoon finish move).

A crescent moon spun out from Sailormoon's hands and stuck the stone horse in between the eyes. As the attack decipated into glittery dust against the horse's snout after impact, nothing happened. Fearing the worse, Sailormoon took a surprised step back. She'd rarely meet youmas, daimonds, and androids that could withstand her attacks. Especially her Eternal Moon powers. However, there have been cases in the past where she had meet opponents strong enough to withstand her attacks. It seemed that this was one of them, and this time there wasn't any immediate back up to save her.

The stone horse started to struggle to get out from underneath all the fallen timber. It would please its master soon. Several of the trees that had bound it started to budge. Then they fell and were moved out of the way by the horse. Until soon after, it was back on its feet again. _IT_ will prove itself worth of the Master yet.

It neighed in its victory over Sailormoon's attack and lunged forward at Sailormoon. Too stun to move Sailormoon stood there. All her confidence in defeating the thing had plunged as it escaped the wooden chamber that held it down. And now, it was free again. Rushing straight for her. Stepping back in fear, Sailormoon started to turn around and run when her foot tripped over a pebble.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Sailormoon screamed as she started to crawl away as fast as she could. But it was too late to get away now, the huge horse was right over her now. It's front hooves now descending down onto her. There would be nothing to save her this time. However, just before the hooves reached her, the horse was suddenly bubbled in by a life size glowing sphere. It engulfed the stone horse in a blue light, as tendrils of light trails spun from it. Veiling the horse in a bright and blinding light until not even a dark silhoutte of the stone horse could be made out. The last thing to be seen before the horse was totally hiddened within the sphere of light was a dark outline of a huge horse rearing up. Followed by a weak and distant neigh can be heard from within the sphere of light and then it was carried away by the breeze to echoed throughout the park. Soon after that, the sphere of light vanished to reveal a stone horse reared on its hind legs as points its head towards the heavens. And the stone horse now nothing but just a stone horse.

Remembering that she did not fight the battle alone, Sailormoon stood up onto her feet and rushed to the sides of her closest friends. "Tuxedo Mask! Sailor Saturn!" Her sweet and mature voice had vanished now. Along with the feelings of confidence and humbleness that had filled her moments ago. Sailormoon was back to being a hormone driven, crime fighting(though I don't think the correct trem would be crime) teenager. "Tuxedo Mask! Sailor Saturn! Are you two okay."

Sailor Saturn awoke at the call of her princess's voice. Sailor Saturn had already healed from her injuries that she had recieved earlier. "Sailormoon," came a weak and half dazed voice. But the smile couldn't be hidden. "Are you okay?" Of course, Saturn, like all the other senshi, held her princess's well being above all else. "Where's that stone horse? What happened?"

"Sailor Saturn, you're okay!" Shouted a frantic Sailormoon as she glomped onto the senshi of life and death. "Iwassoworriedwhenyouwerehit.ThenTuxedoMasktriedtohelp,butheendedup gettingknockedoutthenthethingwasgoingtosquishhimwhenitstopdandwhencrazy.ThenitattackedmeandIalmostgotkilledbutsomethinghappenedanditcrashed.ThenIdefeateditbyturningitbacktoits orginalform!ThenIrememberthatyouandTuxedoMaskwerehurtsoIranovertoyouandyougotupandIjustsohappy!"

Sailormoon finally paused for a breather when she finally realized that her head was getting little light. Sailor Saturn just stared at her princess in shock. Saturn knew that Sailormoon could fast talk when she wanted to. However, she had no idea that Sailormoon could recap an entire battle in one breath. One of these days, she was going to learn how Sailormoon does that. Recalling what Sailormoon said about Tuxedo Mask, Saturn gently forced herself away from Sailormoon's crushing hug and made her way to the motionless form of Tuxedo Mask, save for the slow rise and fall of his chest.

His mask had fallen off, so Saturn decided to fix that first by 'remasking' him before some curious reporter arrive. Then Saturn went to work healing her fallen future king. He wasn't too badly hurt. Just a few minor scrapes and a few bruises. A small cut just above his right eyebrow and a large bruise on the back of his head. Other then that, there wasn't anything too bad. Saturn only healed the wounds that would seemed to painful or take long periods of time to heal. She left the wounds that she figured probably wouldn't hinder him is his daily activities. After all, she couldn't let the dashing young prince become too accustomed to having her heal up every scrapes and cuts he gets. What was Usagi's job.

Tuxedo Mask regained consciousness just as Sailor Saturn finished healing him. "Welcome back Tuxedo mask," the senshi of life and death smiled playfully to him. "I see you'll live after all."

Sailormoon glomped onto Tuxedo Mask wailing and crying. Reapeating the samething she had said to Saturn talking at the same speed as well. Saturn just shook her head and sigh as she decided to leave the two alone for now. Walking over to where she dropped her Silence Glaive, Saturn noticed four colorful figures rush towards them. It was the inners, each donning their senshi costume and fancying their own seperate colors. Jupiter, the tallest and probably most athletic of the group, approached the area. Her beautifully combed brown hair brought out the colors of her emerald eyes and waved steadily with the breeze. Her dark forest green kercheif and skirt followed suit with her hair. There was an obvious look of shock across her face as she approached the scene before her.

Next to arrive was Sailor Venus, self proclaimed senshi of love and probably the most experienced senshi. Her light blue eyes glittering with a deep sad secret that was masked by her bright face and smile. Her waist-length blond hair, slightly lighter then Sailormoon's, waved and fluttered playfully in the winds. Her orange and milk white senshi fuku seemed to repel all the dirt and dust away from her. Saturn had to admit, out of all the senshi, both outers and inners, it was the senshi of love that made her feel physically conscious most of all. Minako/Sailor Venus had a natural beauty about her that seemed almost unnatural. Sometimes Hotaru wonder if Minako actually attempts more NOT to have a boyfriend.

Arriving together in thrid place were the resepectable Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury. Sailor Mars, like Venus, had waist-long hair, only her's were ebony black. Almost silky to the eyes. And like Venus's, Mars's hair too fluttered with the breeze. However, unlike the Senshi of Love, Sailor Mars's hair didn't waved teasingly in the air. Rather, it was more together. Intimidating and full of vitality rather then fun. Her dark red skirt remained unaffected as if there was no breeze at all. She was the only senshi in the group that intimidated Saturn most. Even though Hotaru knew that Rei had a good heart, she also has a temper to match.

Mercury, the brains of the entire team. Probably even smarter, in the ways of science, then even Setsuna. Unlike the rest of the senshi, Mercury's hair was short. Shorter then Saturn's even. Almost similar to Haruka's. Her faced mirrored the exact look on Jupiter's face, only there was a hint of curiousity within them.

"Sailormoon, Sailor Saturn, Tuxedo Mask!" Shouted Jupiter as she and the other senshis joined their friends. "Wha...what happened here. We heard of a news report about a monster in the park so we hurried over here. What happened!?"

"Its taken care of," Saturn replied pointing over to a horse statue. "Sailormoon was able to defeat it on her own."

"WHAT!" the whole team, saved Mercury, shouted. "Sailormoon defeating a monster on her own! No way! You have to mean that you guys and Sailormoon right?"

"Not this time girls," Tuxedo Mask cut in weakly, Sailormoon still glomped. "This time, Sailormoon really did take it down all on her own."

The girls' jaws dropped, to Sailormoon's chagrin. "What!? Its not as if it's that hard to believe!" Sailormoon said. "After all, I've beaten other monsters before this one."

"That may be true," Jupiter added. "But you're usually Princess Serenity when that happens...and I..._WE_ know that you didn't transform into princess serenity or we'd felt it."

There were nods of agreement from the group as Jupiter finished. "Are you certain you didn't have _any_ kind of outside help?" Sailor Mars decided to pry. After all, she wasn't ready for the world to end just yet. "Are you sure that nothing else happened? Banana peels, hurricane, nuclear explosion? Nothing?"

"Well...." Sailormoon, though slightly insulted and angry at Mar's suggetions of 'natural' occurrences, remembered that she may have had a little help. "There was this yellow thing that shot out of the trees, but I finished off the monster."

All the inners let out a long sigh of relief. Their world was spared from a horrible death.

  
Seeing that the Stone horse was now defeated, Syaoran figure he should return to Hotaru. Tree walking around the battle scene, Syaoran made his way back to where he layed Hotaru's body down. After while of hopping and running from tree to tree, Syaoran reached his destination. Syaoran remembered to return his sword back its false form then he leapt down from the trees to where he left Hotaru. Only to find nothing when he returned to the area where he'd left her unconscious form. "Where did she go?" Syaoran said, with a pinch of panic in his voice, as he turned his head left and right trying to see if he can find any kind of clue or hint showing that Hotaru may have staggered off somewhere.

A horrible thought crawled up from the back Syaoran's mind as he tried to keep himself from panicking. _What if she headed off back towards the fight scene?!_ Fearing the worse, Syaoran spun his body around and made a bee line straight to the fight scene. Cutting through the bushes and green of the park, Syaoran ran as fast as he could to where that attack had settled. There was still some unsettled dirt and dust wavering in the air, causing Syaoran a little minor seeing problem, but he kept going. It was his job to proctect Hotaru, it was his job to have gotten her to safety. And what did he do, he failed. Like the failure he was, he failed._Bakaryou! Stupid stupid stupid idiot. She was hurt, she was unconscious, she could've been delirious! And you left her alone to fend for herself?! If she's hurt, it'll all your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!_

Syaoran rushed through a wall of leaves, the final veil of green before Syaoran reached his new destination. Emerging from the cocoon of leaves and branches, Syaoran entered the concrete terrain. For the first time, Syaoran saw up close how much punishment the fight had been on the poor park. Huge pot holes seemed to be a repeated patterned design. The place was filled with eroded and cracked earth. Mixed with crags of brought up concrete and dirt.

However, before Syaoran could react to the scene before him, he had to react to avoid a headslash from gnarled blade. Syaoran almost didn't see the blade, it had been so thin and flat, that all Syaoran saw was a thin while string. Or what would've past as a string. Only the light reflecting off from the incredibly sharp blade gave Syaoran a warning of the attack.

  
Saturn didn't know what was happening. All she knew what to do was to react to a danger. She and the senshi were discussing the events of the battle when she heard some disturbance in the bushes behind her. None of the senshi seemed to have taken notice or just didn't care about it. However, Saturn, the part of her that was Saturn, wasn't going to be as careless. Saturn knew well that just because the battle had been won doesn't mean that the danger was over. There is always a price to pay for victory and she wasn't going to let that price go up any higher then it already has.

So when something emerged from the bushes and straight at her, Saturn reacted on reflex. Gripping her Silence Glaive, Saturn back slashed with her polearm to where Saturn assumed what was its neck. The imaged quickly blurred and the blade of the Silence Glaive cut through nothing but air. Fortunately, Saturn's reflexes weren't just based on making one fatal attack. It was based on multiple self defense actions that would immediately repeat itself until Saturn starts to consciously take over.

Curving the Silence Glaive, Sailor Saturn twisted the deadly polearm back and slashed downward at angle to where she assumed the knees of the possible threat were. Sailor Saturn's eyes met and ran across a face. A human face. Saturn's blood froze and drained from _her_ face as she realize who the face belongs too. However, it was too late to stop now. Even if she could've, she couldn't have stopped the Silence Glaive from bringing Syaoran down a feet or two, literally.

The blade of the Silence Glaive swished through nothing but empty air. Saturn brought the Silence Glaive to a stop across her body. Afraid that the polearm had sliced through Syaoran like a sharp sword would through a twig. Fearing the worse, yet hoping for the best, Sailor Saturn tried to fight back the tears that was now fighting to blind her.

_What have I done...?_ She thought as she shut her eyes, trying to force back the tears. _This is no time for crying...not right now. First see if he's all right...then you can cry..._ Listening to her advice, Hotaru, Sailor Saturn, reopened her eyes. Preparing herself for a scene of gore and blood, only to be presented with an untouched Syaoran. Crouched form several feet away, off to the side, and out of the range of the Silence Glaive. Saturn was both stunned and visibly relieved that her friend was safe.

The senshi and Tuxedo Mask were more in awe then they were stun. They had all turned around too when they caught glimpse of something leaping from the bushes behind them. Their initial reactions were to throw their planetary attacks right at it, only to be beaten to it by Saturn. Wielding her wicked polearm dangerous, they watched in fear as the conveyor of silence slashed at the figured. When they all realized that the figure was a human, and that Saturn was about to attack again with her Silence Glaive, their fears rose even higher.

Then, the figured did something none of the senshi had expected. It dodged the blow. Faster then lightning, the figured ducked under the first slashed, meant for the head. Then side flipped over the lower slash and flipped away again when the figure landed. Putting quite some distance between itself and the polearm.

  
Syaoran was anything but happy at the moment. Nearly being beheaded then nearly 'beleg-ed' was not two things he'd plan on doing today. _You've made the same mistake before as well,_ Syaoran told himself, trying to reach a reason why one of the senshi had tried to sishcabob him. _Her adrenaline is probably still pretty high and she's still on fight mode, so just keep your distance and wait until she gets a good look at you._ Getting up from his crouching position, Syaoran slowly stood up. Making sure both his hands were visible to the eyes of the senshi so they wouldn't think he was reaching for a weapon.

When Syaoran had fully erected himself up, he calmly said, "I'm looking for someone."

Venus was the first of the senshi to snap out of her state of awe. "This isn't a place to be fooling around in kid. Its dangerous, whoever you're looking for, I'm sure they'd probably ran to a safer place by now." Despite her calm speech, Sailor Venus just barely able to keep her libido in check. _I wonder if he has a older brother?_

"Yea kid," came Jupitor, the second to recover. Who was just as interested in the young boy as Sailor Venus was. _The way he dodged those attacks were so cool,_ Jupiter thought to herself as she gauged the boy with an apraising eye. _And the way he stood up, it was like watching some fallen hero from an anime movie...he looks just like my old boyfriend when he was his age..._

However, it was Mercury who kept a level mind and asked who the boy was looking for. "Just who're are you looking for, perhaps we might have passed them on our way here." Which was true. The senshi had to get through a mob of people to get into the park. "Or maybe we can help you search for them."

Syaoran eyed each of the girls and Tuxedo Mask with a careful eye. Should he trust them or not? They may be the defender of truth and justice and all the other things that they claim to defend, however, they were, in appearance, still teenagers. Barely older then him now that thought about it. In all honesty, Syaoran was rather disappointed in meeting the Sailor senshi. He'd been expecting to meet seasoned veteran warriors, not hormoned drivened teenaged girls.

_It wouldn't hurt if you told them who're you're looking for,_ Syaoran said to himself then relented. "I'm searching for a girl. She was hurt during all the chaos so I carried her off. I set her down against a tree when I figured that she would be safe and I came back to see if there was anybody else who may have been hurt. When I returned to where I left her, she was gone. I think she may have wandered back here."

Saturn was the first senshi to step up and respond. "If you're referring to an unconsious girl who was leaned up against a tree," she started. Hotaru hated to lie, especially to a friend, which she have very few off. She had grew up being taught that lying to people wasn't a nice thing to do. However, it was necessary to in order to keep her identity a secret. "I healed her and I told her to run out of the park. You should probably try to look for her outside of the park."

Syaoran's turned to eye the violet skirt senshi. Not a lecherous lust stare or of fear. But with cat curiousity. There was something extremely familiar about her. But Syaoran's mind still refused to acknowledge it. It was like chasing a peace of cloud. Just when you've only reached it, your hands slips right through it. Syaoran could sense a magical flux around each and everyone of the senshi. He couldn't measure their abilities, power, or even sense their emotions with his empathic gifts. Whoever designed their shieldings had to have had A LOT of power and resource.

Deciding that he probably wasn't going to get anymore information then he already had from the senshi, Syaoran nodded and left calmly towards the exit of the parks. His mind boggled with the events that had just occured to today. Especially the new character whom Syaoran had the pleasure of meeting today. _I need sometime to sort all this out..._

  


"I wonder if he has an older brother," Venus asked as soon as Syaoran's form disappeared from sight.

"I wonder if he's single," Jupiter replied. "I mean, did you see how he dodged those attacks? He's definitely a martial artist and probably pretty good too."

"Isn't he a little young for you," the Spiritual believer of the senshi said. "Besides, we have bigger things to think about. Like who sent this attack and why? There wasn't any energy draining or heart snatching. And we didn't even sense it until we saw it on the news."

"Yea guys," Sailormoon said, catching the attention of all the senshi. "Stop thinking about that boy and concentrate on whats going on-Hey! What're you doing Jupiter?"

"Do you have a fever Sailormoon?" asked Jupiter as she placed her hand on Sailmoon's forehead. Sailormoon, the ultimate postergirl for klutz-ville and the most boy crazy out of the group, even with Mamoru as her boy friend, telling the senshi _not_ to think about cute boys! The senshi can only draw up one of two conclusions from this. Either Sailormoon had been replaced by some evil being, or she wasn't feeling very well. "Did you hit your head when you were attacked?"

"Hey I'm fine Jupiter," Sailormoon shouted. "I can think of anything else other than cute boys you know. I haven't thought about cute boys since I meet Mamo-chan. Besides, I said not to think about _that_ particular boy. He's Hotaru's boyfriend."

"WHAT!" Venus, Mars, and Jupiter's jaw hit the ground. It was incredulous! Hotaru, having a boyfriend! Not that that they didn't think that Hotaru was capable of getting a boyfriend. After all, it was one of the rules that all senshi be extremely beautiful. They just never expected a boy who just happened to be Hotaru's boyfriend to be so...physically fit. They had all imagine the type of guy Hotaru would end up dating, if they were a guy, would be a lot less athletic and looked more nerdish.

The three awe strickened senshi turned to a blushing Saturn. "Is this true Saturn?" "You had a boyfriend and you never told us? I can't believe you?!" "So how did you two meet!" "Does he have an older brother?"

"I...we...I...he..." Saturn stumbled clumsily over her words as she tried to subdue her blush. Which only succeeded in adding more to the burning redness of her face. Trying to think up of a reason to leave and escape the interogation of the inners, Saturn remembered her promise to Syaoran that _she_ would be waiting for him outside the park. "I...I have to go...Syaoran is probably mad with me right now..."

  


_It_ was upset! _It_ had to release its bond with _its_ creation. The poor thing came so close to defeating the senshi. _It_ released the Dark Crystal bond to the senshi and the prince of Earth the minute it reached just out of reach of a mage scan. _It_ had not expected such an opponent. _It_ must be ready the next time...however, _it_ was considerably weakened and the Dark Crystal is still not strong to fully aid _it_ if there was going to be a direct confrontation with the senshi. _It_ needed more time...

  


Teleporting to the west area of the park, the direction that Syaoran had taken off towards, Sailor Saturn found a place to detransform. _Please don't let him be upset with me,_ Hotaru prayed as she walked out of the bushes. Her clothes were still slightly wet and her chest was hurting a little. She didn't feel any injuries that neded to be immediately healed though. Deciding that she should wait near the exit of the park, Hotaru started toward the exit. Hotaru quickly light headed and drained. Her muscles went limb and her legs turned into jello. Hotaru suddenly felt empty. As if something had poured all the energy out of her. Her world started to swirl and her stomach became weak with nausea. The world became fuzzier, brighter. It got warmer, LOTS warmer. Hotaru felt fevered and fatigue, despite the fact that she just had lunch. Breathing suddenly became a challenge for her. Hotaru felt as if she was trying to breath in through a mall straw. No matter how deeply she breath, her lungs simply just wasn't recieving enough air. Her head started to swim as a slight headache chose to come one. Then her knees gave from both weakness and dizziness. The last thing she remembers was falling and being caught around the waist by two strong arms.

  
Syaoran rushed forward quickly as he saw Hotaru faultered in her steps. He'd seen this happen way to many times in the past. He knew the signals that the body naturally gives away before someone loses consciousness. He reached out with his arms as Hotaru's thin form started to fall forward. Grasping her around the waist as he reaches her. Holding her and keeping her dingling form from hitting the stone cold concrete. Getting her into a better position in his arms, Syaoran scans Hotaru's aura to see if there was something wrong with her. Only to find her...sleeping? _I guess I better get her home..._

  


-------------later that night---------------

"Mother, something came up," Syaoran spoke into the mouthpiece of the phone. He then proceeded to tell her about the day's event, excluding the part where he carried Hotaru home. "I think I'm going to be staying here for a little longer then expected."

"Yes, Xiao Lang, I shall tell your sisters." Yelan responded in Chinese. She was rather disappointed that her only son wasn't going to come home sooner. She sees less and less of him now a days. He maybe the future ruler of the clan, however, that doesn't mean he has to avoid his family. "Just write and call every now and then...I'm your mother for peaks sake Xaio Lang, I worry when you're away."

"Yes mother," Syaoran sigh. "Oh and mother...do you or my sisters know anything about a swoon spell?"

  


Tonight was colder then most nights. Between his patrol and school work, Syaoran was starting to feel a little fatigue. Everything had changed now. Everything was different.

Hopping from the roof of a bread shop onto a grocery store, Syaoran allowed himself to relished the hang time. He slowly felt his mind clearing and his troubled thoughts wash then drain away. He felt...invigorated. That was the correct word. He felt renewed. Cold as the air was, Syaoran wouldn't have given up roof hopping on a cold winter's night for anything. It was a great way to lose yourself in nothing but the rush of the job. The pure enjoyment of being in the air. In near flight position, staring down at the people below you. Knowing that while they may share the same problem as Syaoran did, the feeling of freedom made him feel as if all the shakles life was taken off of him.

However, his feeling of enjoyment was only temporary. Less then a second after his leap, his legs meet with the hard roof. Ruining the moment of bliss. A feeling that was far worse then any drug and refreshingly addictive to the troubled soul. Such as the one that Syaoran possessed. He needed more of the feeling. Some people's high was smoking. Some were drugs. Syaoran's was the feeling of what he can only describe as 'the rush.'

Tonight was a night, as all nights were, of infinite possibilities. And he was going to explore as many of those possibility as he can before the night is over.

Syaoran's mind, though clear was still troubled. It is easy to clear one's mind, but it impossible to calm the matters of the heart. At the moment, Syaoran's own emotions were his enemies. He was suppose to be home right now. His home. In Hong Kong. With his family. But he wasn't. Because fate never lets anyone get what they want, only unless they needed to be taught a lesson. No, fate only allows you to get what you need and a whole bunch of troubles as a freebie.

_Expected the unexpected Syaoran,_ Syaoran's mind droned to himself as he made a huge leap to a taller building. Syaoran growled silently to himself as he reached out with his right arm and grasp onto the top of the building and pulled himself onto the roof. _A lesson you should always keep in mind after yesterday's event...and something tells me, this is only the beginning..._

---------------------------end of Chapter 4-------------------------------

FINISH! This was by far the longest chapter I had to rewrite. But I'm finally done...and lets all share a moment of silence for those who past away in the twin incident on Sept 11, 2001 in Manhatten and Washington. My condolences to the families and people who had lost friend and loved ones in that crash.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter...as I said, I had to rewrite from memory, which isn't really helping it for the better.

Anyway, R&R or write to me at LPS_2@yahoo.com.


	5. chapter 5

When Strangers Meet Disc: I don't own CCS or SM. They're all respectively borrowed into my NON-PROFITABLE writing. This is only for the enjoyment of the readers.  
  
  
  


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When Strangers Meet  
By  
Neohowler

  
  
  
  
Chapter 5 

Hotaru sat next to Michiru as they attended the senshi meetings at Rei's temple. It had been agreed upon that atleast one of the outers would attend to one meeting with the senshi once a month to be 'updated' with what's going on. Though lately nothing really serious had been happening. Save for the attacked at the park a week ago, which was told to Michiru and Haruka via phone call from one of the inners. Odd part was that neither of them had felt any disturbance at all. Nothing. No danger, no negative activity, no evil vibes. Nothing. At least they weren't alone in all this. The inners had felt nothing as well. Only a brief news report about an attack at the park and Ami's quick thinking got the inners organized. That was the reason why Michiru was at the meeting to day, along with Hotaru. Haruka was absent due to the fact that she was at the race tracks.

As usual as clock work, the meetings started out as it usually does. Usagi and Rei arguing, Ami reading of to the side waiting for the meeting to officially begin, Minako and Makoto gossiping to each other about cute boys that they've recently seen. With Luna and Artemis trying to get the girls to take the meeting more seriously. Well, Luna atleast was trying. Artemis was flipping through a magazine nodding his head and saying, "I agree." Of course, this lead to Luna taking a swipe at Artemis's head with her paw.

"Can we please get this meeting started!?" shouted Luna as she gives Usagi and Rei a glare. Mainly Usagi. "I believe we have some very important issues to dicuss today. Issues that may involved another attack from a possibly new or revived foe."

"I agree," said Ami as she closed her book and looks up at the others. "I think we should discuss about the events that came to past several days ago."

"I think I agree," Michiru spoke up. "In case you all have forgotten, we may be facing a possible threat that could be dangerous then any we've face before. So I'd rather like it if we can just get straight to business."

Hotaru nodded, agreeing with her foster-parent's thoughts. Though she wished Michiru be wouldn't so blunt at times. Especially around the inners. Despite popular beliefs, the outers are very likeable people. Setsuna isn't as cold or as distant as some may think, she's just usually busy and finds that brief conversation is the best way to avoid being late for her 'job.' Haruka may be a bit harsh, but she's extremely protective and get easily frustrated when she can't protect those she cares about. Samething with Michiru, except that she was just a bit more motherly then Haruka. It's just that being around the inners brings about that cold, distant, blunt side of them. Though Hotaru couldn't understand why. All the inners seem to be very nice to her.

"Right," Luna nodded as the other senshi began to quiet down and listened. It was at that point that Luna realized that she honestly really didn't have anything to add to the conversation at the moment. All she knew about the fight was from what Usagi briefed her on, which wasn't saying much since Usagi was stuffing her face at the times. Luckily for her, Ami decided to step into the conversation, saving Luna's advisor pride from a painful and embarassing death.

"Let's all gather the main facts about last week's attack," Ami started, holding the attention of all the senshi. Ami may not have Makoto's strength or Minako's speed and experience, but when it came to matters of collecting information, she was one of the best. "First of all, we didn't sense this attack. Second, this wasn't the usual attack that we normally deal with. It seemed that this attacked seemed to be aimed right at harming or killing bystanders. There was no heart snatching or energy stealing. If we're facing a possible new enemy, we should expect this enemy to attack at anytime."

There was a pregnant pause as all the senshi took the time to allowed Ami's word to sink in. They were all facing a possible new enemy. Possibly a strong one as well. It was even more dangerous since whoever was causing these attacks seemed to have some sort of hidden agenda. And something told each of them, though none of them acknowledged it outloud, that they were part of the agenda.

Michiru couldn't help but felt a chill ran up her spine as she thought about what had happened last week. Though she wasn't there herself, just the words alone of what had happened there scared her. Especially when Hotaru was carried home unconcious by a young boy. Also, now that she thought about it, Michiru never even really thanked the boy or asked him his name. _Guess I'm going to have to ask Hotaru later if she knew him..._

  


Flashback

Michiru had just gotten home from her recital. It wasn't exactly easy trying for first violinist when her competition was almost just as good as she was. It was even worse when her competition was almost oblivious to the fact that they were both competing. _That Tsukishiro,_ Michiru thought as she took off her blue, spaghetti string dress and put on a pink white turtleneck and jeans that seemed to hug at her legs just a little too comfterably. _He's a total airhead...I wonder if he's even aware that he's doing this for a show._ She continued on her way out of the room and downstairs when she heard a knock at the door and a possible murmer. Using common sense and good manners, Michiru decided to see to the door before she went anywhere else. Of course, she couldn't help but wonder who would be visiting at this hour and why. Hotaru had little, if any, friends besides the scouts. Haruka was busy at the tracks and last time she checked, Haruka hasn't tried to out run the traffic police. She herself wasn't expecting company and Setsuna...well Setsuna should already know when she's going to have company, if ever.

So that left who? A sales man? _It better not be one of those door to door salesperson,_ Michiru groaned as she recalled a memory from her past. Thoughts of turning down a salesman were expelled from her mind when she opened the door. Before her was a ruggish brown hair boy, handsomely dress she might add. Had she had to guess his age simply from first glance, she would've assume that he was twelve or maybe younger. His face held a certain eternal youth to it, a boyish trait that seemed to bring out her maternal instincts almost immediately. The look on his face resembled, from Michiru's first opinion, that of a mischievous child who was trying to hide its guilt. However, as her eyes came into contact with his eyes, the mischievous and childly looks all melted away to be replaced by a growing boy's unreadablel face. The youthful trait in his face that Michiru had adored so much took on a tragic lost of childly innocence. Then there were the eyes. The face may have lied about his age, but those amber orbs held a hardened mask brought upon by growing age and other undescribable life events.

Michiru was going to allow herself to be held in awe of the child had she not saw the two arms that were hanging from each side of the boy's shoulders. As she traced those arms up to the face, Michiru nearly pounced at the boy when she saw who the arms' owner was. Carried on the mysterious boy's back was her very own adopted daughter, Hotaru. Unconscious, a little dirtied, and slightly soaked. Instinctively, Michiru wanted to immediately grabbed the boy by the neck and rang it like a bell. Of course, she knew that if she did this, she wouldn't get any answers. So she decided to ask and then kill later.

"Hotaru!" Michiru said as she moved out of the way of the door and gestured the young boy to enter. Best if there were no witnesses. "What happened to her?! Who did this?"

The boy's face remained impassive and irratibly unreadable as he stepped into the house, carrying an unconscious Hotaru on his back. He continued on in silence as Michiru lead him to the living room. Her temper, though usually sweet and always in check, was nearing her breaking point. Try watching _your_ daughter, even if adopted, carried through the door with a mysterious boy who looks like he's ready to jump off a cliff come through your door. Ignore your questions and not even saying one word about why he is carrying your daughter, or foster daughter for those who likes to be politcally correct(Neo shakes his fist at them and throws a brick at their window then takes off).

Upon reaching the first family size furniture, that was also soft enough to sleep on, the boy lightly rested Hotaru down on it. "She'll need to rest," he told Michiru as he gently lay Hotaru's head down onto the cushions. As soon as he finished positioning Hotaru's body to lay horizontally on the couch, he stood up and started to head towards the door, pausing just to say a few words. "She should be okay."

Michiru was so occupied with worrying about who would be willing to hurt Hotaru, unfortunately the list was unbelievably long, that she never noticed the boy even leaving. It wasn't until she heard the sound of the door shutting that Michiru returned to the problem at hand. Realizing that the boy had shown himself out, Michiru picked up her unconscious foster daughter and carried her upstairs to her room.

End of Flashback

Michiru returned her attention back to the present. This wasn't exactly the time to be thinking about mysterious young boys who carried your daughter home, then again, when was there actually time for that kind of thing? But she came to the meeting for senshi business, despite that there was hardly none being discussed at hand. Business was still business.

"USAGI!" shouted Rei as she tackled the meatball head blonde. "Will you stop stealing all my manga!"

"But I haven't read this one yet," countered Usagi as tried to keep the manga away from Rei's hands. "I just wanna see how it turns out."

"The guy is a vampire and the girl kills him near the end. There now you know," Rei shouted as she succeeded in taking the manga away from Usagi's hands. Of course, this leads to a wailing Usagi and Rei trying to comfort, by comfort I mean yelling at the young blonde, Usagi so she would shut up. Leading to the rest of the senshi talking about their own different topic. Ami, Luna, and Artemis would start talking about possible suspects. Minako and Makoto would both try to calm Usagi down for a while, but then start their own little conversation when they realize that the attempt was pratically useless. Naturally the topic was on boys of course.

This signaled Michiru that it was time to leave. Since there probably wasn't going to be anymore discussion about what had happened last week, Michiru got up and headed for the door. Hotaru followed suit when she noticed that her guardian was starting to leave. Of course, secretly, she wished that she could remain a bit longer. It wasn't that she didn't like being with Michiru or any of the outers, it was just that the inners were younger and closer to her age. Despite how unfocus they may appear to be at times. Also, it was entertaining to watch Rei and Usagi's little fights at times, it was one of the few things she actually looks forward to when they came to these meetings.

Minako and Makoto, however, wouldn't let the littlest member of the senshi escaped unscathed from the meeting though. Ever since meeting with Hotaru's _boyfriend_ they've been dying to find out more information about him. Even more after Usagi told them about her and Mamoru's little double date with them. Their yearnings for more information on the boy only increased, if that was possible, when Usagi described to them about how he 'heroically' saved Hotaru from becoming a pancake. Both girls both had their mind set dead straight into finding out as much as they can about the boy, generally if he had an older brother or two or three or four. So they decided to find out, naturally.

"Hey wait Hotaru," shouted Makoto as she caught both the outers just before the exit the little room. "How's your relationship with your boyfriend going?"

Minako of course followed her friend's example. "Yeah Hotaru, how are you and that cute little hunk doing? Have you found out if he had any older brothers?"

Hotaru tried, or poorly attempted, to keep her face from blushing as she quickly became the center of attention. Rei and Usagi suddnely ceased fighting. Ami and the moon cats, though it wasn't as obvious as the others, turned their attention to Hotaru as well, with a hint of curiousity in their eyes. The words also caught Michiru's attention as well. The words 'Hotaru' and 'boyfriend,' together in a sentence aren't exactly words that Michiru like to hear. Not that she didn't want Hotaru to date guys, she was willing to let Hotaru decide that for herself. No way. In fact, she was quite please to hear that Hotaru is able to have a relationship considering her reputation within the local neighborhood. It was the idea that Hotaru may _be_ involved in more way than just a platonic relationship. _Especially_ if it just happened to be a boy. Though she knew Hotaru better than that. It was just a mother's natural reaction. Infact, if possible, its probably what all mothers dislike to hear the most. For reasons untold, a daughter will always be unprepare to date until she considered too old to get married.

"Boyfriend?" Michiru said as she turn to question a reddening Hotaru. "Hotaru, who is this _boyfriend_ that Makoto and Minako are talking about?"

"Well...I...they're...umm...we aren't..." Hotaru stuttered nervously as the idiots...er the inners continued to pry...er asked about her friendship with Syaoran. "I mean, he and I haven't...we're just friends." There, she said it. The truth. She and Syaoran really were just friends. That's all. He said he would be her friend, not her boyfriend. It was Usagi who'd blown it out of proportion. They could all accept that, right. It was the truth. She and Syaoran were just friends...just friends. So why did it sound so...lacking?

  


  
Haruka was more than just majorly disappointed and upset. She was pissed off! _Five straight losses!_ She cursed to herself. _Five straight losses to...to..._HIM!

This was the third time in the last three week that Kinomoto had out raced her in a drag race with a perfect score! Leaving her, literally, in the dust and also the bottom of every joke that all the male at the track had to tell! And it was all because of...that MAN! How could he?! How can any one be that fast, both of feet and on a motor cycle! Haruka had to admit, challenging Kinomoto to a foot race was her fault. She had let her pride, for a moment, control her and she childishly challenge Kinomoto to a two mile race, which she lost. It wasn't the fact that she lost that bothered her. It was by how easily he had beaten her and that smile that he kept on during the entire time they were running! As if he knew he was going to win! She just didn't lose at an arms length, she could've lived with that. She lost with a ten foot gap between them. That was a blow to her pride she just couldn't live with.

  
_It_ had found its second target. _It_ had been working on this plan for a while now. _It_ can be sure to do this just right now. Now all _it_ has to do now is to wait. Wait until she is alone, then they will strike. Yes, they will strike. Then _it_ and the crystal can start draining her of her powers.

This one was alone. Good. None of the others to come to her aid, or atleast, not fast enough that they can interfer with _its_ plans. _It_ probed her first with _its_ powers. It had taken a while for _it_ to finally try a mage probe. Because it was risky and a waste of energy. _It_ couldn't do it before because of those reasons. _It_ had not had the reserves of the crystal had back then. But now that it had, it found out several interesting things. First of all, this person was a _bonyia n'ya hlor'gao_, a female who mates with female. Given her anti-traditional female role attitude, _it_ assumed that she played the role of the more musculine figure of authority with her chosen mate. Very interesting indeed. Perhaps the crystal will allow _it_ to keep her as a pet when all this was over.

Another thing _it_ learn was that she was particularly upset at this moment. Upset at a certain male who seemed to have bested her on more than one occasion lately. _It_ had been keeping a close eye on most of the crystal's intended reciever of its vengeance. This one had interested _it_ quite more than the others. _It_ may have called it an infatuation, but that was not possible. It could not feel what humans refer to as emotions. Clow Reed thought that that ability to good for _it_ and took it away from _it_. But all things, magical or non-magical, have the instinctive need and drive to reproduce. And the sub-conscious need to find companionship and recognition. Desires that Clow Reed have allowed _it_ to have, but never gave them the satisfication they so dearly cried and yearn for.

The very thoughts of Clow Reed nearly sent _it_ into a frezy of hate and anger, if not for the crystal's sudden rhythmic humming, something that _it_ had learn to interpret as 'Can we do this now, I'm getting bored.' _It_ let out a sighed and nodded. Then, 'gripping' onto the powers nodes and leylines that the crystal emitted with his own magical powers, _it_ decided to get to start. _It_ had thoroughly thought this one through already. _It_ had chosen the intended victim, the place, the time, and the accessories. This time, it would fully drain the scout and quinch the Dark Crystal's thirst for power and assuage its hunger for vengeance upon those who had left it captive.

_So now the games begin,_ came the thoughts of the shadow clad figure as it stared out towards the racing tracks and watched as the female stepped into her storage house, closing the doors behind her. _And I get the first move._

  


Haruka slowly started to unzip her outfit, that only seemed to refused to let go of their clang to her body because of the sweat. Or maybe something a bit more. Haruka gave the thought of showering for moment, but decided not to. She just wanted to get back into her normal clothes, though she probably wore her racing suit just as often as her street clothes, get into her car, and speed through town for a good hour or two then head home. Riding helped her clear her mind a little, and she'll be damn if she brought her frustration home to the girls. Though she strongly doubt she'll ever raise a hand against any of them, Haruka would rather sooner cut of her arms and leg and go on living as a disembowled freak then harm any of the girls (the incident with Galaxia not withstanding), but she does have the tendacy of telling others what's on her mind without even realizing that they were on her mind. That would lead to hurt feelings and that was something that she'd rather not do if she could avoid.

_Especially now with Hotaru,_ Haruka's thoughts brought up a mental picture of her charge. Haruka had to constantly remind herself that Hotaru was now half-way to being a woman and no longer the little child that she, Michiru, and, sometimes, Setsuna had taken in and cared for as their own. That was not the only problem as well. Haruka didn't know when, or how, but lately she had found herself fantasizing about Hotaru. Haruka knew that that was sick and pedophilic, but her mind would counter her thoughts with thoughts of her own. That Hotaru, in truth, was not technically _her_ daughter. Also, the age differences wasn't that far off either. It also didn't help that Hotaru had to mature into a pre-teen in only six month's times as well. Haruka never had the time to fully and permantly developed the maternal instinct towards Hotaru that her lover had.

It was getting harder and harder to not look at Hotaru as a little girl that needed her protection now, though in someways, Hotaru still needed it. But, Haruka and Michiru, or Haruka atleast, had never taken into account that Hotaru would mature so well and beautifully. Much less predict the odd and fiecely strong desires Haruka now bear for Hotaru. That was one reason why Haruka had been trying so hard to avoid her charge lately. Haruka had used every excuse she could to stay out of Hotaru's way. From simply just sleeping to going to the tracks. But Haruka knew she couldn't keep this up forever. She was going to have to confront her charge soon and discuss her feelings with both Hotaru and Michiru. _Until then, I just keep avoiding her._ Haruka thought to herself as she started to strip of the lower portion of her suit. _For peaks sake Ten'ou, Hotaru may not even 'bend' that way._

Haruka then started to dress herself in her street clothes, while still contemplating more on her situation with her charge. She knew she was soul bonded with Michiru. Michiru and Haruka were bonded closely together as their heart is to themselves. To lose one was simply to lose their reasons and ability to live. There had been jealousy, anger, and even the rare hatred, but there has never been anything they couldn't work out, no matter how bad. However, Haruka wasn't so sure of how their relationship would survive this if Haruka should admit her feelings to Hotaru to Michiru. Michiru knew Haruka far better than Haruka knew herself. Same as Haruka knowing Michiru more than Michiru knew herself. However, Haruka knew that if she left her feelings for Hotaru go unfettered, sooner or later Haruka would act on them whether she wanted to or not.

A betrayal that will hurt the three of them. She may end up scaring and scarring Hotaru for life. Or worse, if Hotaru should to return those feelings to Haruka and Michiru found out about it. That would be the ULTIMATE betrayal of both lover and family. Michiru's maternal love for Hotaru was no doubt genuine and nothing more than just the motherly love of a mother to her daughter. Michiru would, if she ever have to, fight even Haruka, perhaps maybe even kill, if it mean she could protect Hotaru from harm. Just because Michiru was soul bonded to her doesn't mean that one or the other would be the only reason, or the main reason, they would fight. Motherly love was probably stronger than most love there is out there. A mother would face a painful and torturous death a billion times before she would leave her child unprotected. And Haruka knew, that Michiru was willing to go that far for the sake of Hotaru's life. Haruka also knew that Michiru would kill herself almost immediately after she killed her. That was something Haruka will not do or be to her lover, a reason for dying.

_No,_ Haruka said as she pulled on her brown blazer, the last addition to her public attire. Green stripped pants, a white color button up shirt, a green tie, and the brown blazer. All of them seemed just a little too big for her slim build. _This has to be brought out into the open...with both Michiru and Hotaru. Not just with Michiru...it concerns all of us. Not just one or two._

Haruka nodded with agreement with her thought as she closed the small grey locker that now contained her dirtied and sweaty racing suit and helmet. Haruka headed outside of the locker room to the storage room/garage. There were about five other bikes there as well. She shared the large oil smell filled building with four other MALE biker. They didn't give her a rough time, or atleast, not like they used to when she first started racing. Now, they just treated her like 'one of the guys.' Haruka really didn't know whether to be insulted or flattered by that fact.

While heading thinking whether she should snarl or smile at the treatment she recieved from her locker buddies, Haruka failed to noticed that the five park bikes suddenly developed a light red aura that outlined their bodies. Nor did Haruka realized that the five motor power bikes suddenly straightened up, no longer leaning on the peg that kept them from totally falling down. Infact, had it not been for the fact that these motorcycles made a rather noticeable noise when they start their engine, Haruka may not have never even noticed anything at all.

VRRRROOOOOM!VRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!VERRRRVERRRRVERRRREVRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOMM!

Haruka stopped in mid-step when her ears picked up the sound of ALL five motercycle starting together. Not to mention the vibration that set her hairs to stand on end when she heard the unmistakable noise of two or more twin motor engine starting and getting ready to race off. Haruka's first thought was that it was the guys playing a sick joke on her. But she dismissed the thought when she recognize the starting of her own engine joining the others. Also, the garage door was close and the building, though large, was not big enough for FIVE motorcycles to go at full speed. Not unless the riders want to kill themselves doing it.

As Haruka turned around to see what exactly it was that was doing this, her right hand reaching for her transformation pen, Haruka's eyes were meet by five slightly lit headlights, vibrating violently along with the engine. Before Haruka could think about anything else, they all launched themselves at her. Each of them going at least sixty mile an hour. The only thing that saved Haruka from becoming nothing more then just a splatter of blood on the ground was her well honed martial arts training and senshi experience.

Leaping out of the way of the five possesed motorcycles, Haruka transformed in mid-jump. Gripping her transformation pen as if it was the elixer of life, Haruka shouted the words that she'd said so many times before. "Uranus Star Power!" That started her change. The power spread from her right arm like warm water. Stretching and streaming throughout her and tightening over the area of her body were the uniform usually formed itself. As the golden streams of air wrapped itself around her slim torso, dissolving whatever clothes that Haruka had been wearing, her forearms and her lower legs. The ribbons solidified from golden wrappings of energy to pure white. Haruka felt her lips tremble slightly as the rush of the transformation neared its end. Then, came the sketch of the Tiara that drew itself upon her forehead, merging itself gently into her blond hair. When she finally hit the ground she rolled, not fighting against the force of the fall, gaining additional distance from herself and the bikes. However, when she stood, Haruka was no longer present. Only Sailor Uranus, the senshi of the heavens stood.

"I am Sailor Uranus," shouted Uranus. "The wonderful warrior of the heavens, and I shall punish you!" Uranus finished, feeling an odd rush of elation as she took her pose, ignoring the small pin prick pain that suddenly came from behind her, causing a wave of disgust and nausea to flow through her. But Uranus ingored the feeling, since it past on quickly as if it had never occured. Unfortunately, the five bikes didn't seem to want to leave as fast. During her speech, the bikes had recovered themselves and started to circle around her.

  
_It_ smiled as it punctured a hole through the shields of the senshi, Sailor Uranus as she called herself. It had been particularly tricky, this one was more in touched with the atmospheric changes then _it_ had first thought. But, it was nothing that he couldn't get past. But now that the bike had her surrounded, it would only be a simple matter of tiring her down.

_:Rushed her from the sides! Wear her down! Hurt her, but do not dispose of her, I have plans for her when we're done! Now GO!:_ _It_ relayed to the bikes and watched from a safe distance with a Mage Eye spell as the bikes started to rush at her one at a time, then returned back to the circling the poor senshi. Only to repeat the process over and over.

  


Syaoran was not having a good day. He was so occupied with his own thoughts from last week's episode that he'd failed to noticed how low his food supply had gotten until this afternoon when he went to get himself a snack. Only to find, and learn, that he had NO food left to eat. Not that he needed to eat right away anyway. His contact with magic had forced his body to become conditioned and adapt in many ways. One of them was the need to feed one self three seperate meal as a daily routine. If he ever had too, Syaoran can live without anything to eat for weeks and have the strength of a man that is only half starved. Of course, that's only if he didn't use any magic during that time.

This was also another draw back on magic as well. It tends to make the weilder less aware of how hungry they actually really are. Yukito is such an example. Contrary to most people's belief, Yukito's hunger drive is a subconscious reaction to having Yue as an alter ego. Since Yue doesn't neccessarily require physical food, Yue does require the energy to replenish the energy he'd lost. So rather then go and draw on an outside source of power, Yue draws the magic reserve that is kept to sustain Yukito. Which leads to Yukito's earnest eating habit. Yukito feeds himself so much and so often because he doesn't know how to replenish the energy Yue takes from him to replenish Yue's magic. So Yukito's only natural reaction to replenish energy was to eat, since Yukito does have a very human body.

So someone who weilds magic on a daily basis, such as Syaoran, needs to periodically and routinely feed themselves whether they feel hungry or not. Magic is like water. People may drink a lot of water and think they're full, but they're really not satisfying the actual need of their body; to gather proteins and vitamins. So like magic, a person who wields it on a daily bases may feel full, but they aren't getting the proteins and energy that the body actually requires. Normally, beginners don't figure this out until they collapse and wake up wondering why they can't move a muscle in they're body.

That was the reason why Syaoran was lost within the outskirts of Tokyo, wandering where the nearest train station was. What innocently started out as a shopping trip, ended up in Syaoran getting off at the wrong stop and wandering around for about an hour, thinking why he hadn't arrived at his intend destination.

_This can't be happening to me!_ Syaoran groaned as he lifted the bag of food in his arms slightly so as to get a better grip on the paper bag. _This just _can't_ be happening to me!_

Syaoran's mind, which sometimes has a mind of _its_ own, didn't have time to respond, because at that exact moment, Syaoran felt a sudden 'pinch' that poked and pinned all the way down from his shoulder to his ankles. Syaoran's body halted and came to a stand still. By natural reaction, Syaoran subconsciously did two things. One, he didn't allow his body to tense up, as any other normal human body would. To tense up against magic was foolish without the proper sheildings, it only makes you slower to react if you have to physically dodge an attack. The second reaction was to reach out to where he 'felt' the magic came from.

'Pinching' into his own magical reserve, Syaoran willed, bent, stretched, cut, and contructed the dab of mystical energy into a magical representation of a huge 'web' above him. Slowly and carefully Syaoran placed the web down onto the ground, so that if what Syaoran felt really was a magical construct of another mage, he wouldn't let on they he was on to them. Centering himself at the middle point of the web. Once Syaoran felt sure that the mystical web was set properly and that he hasn't been detected, Syaoran gently stretched each corner of the web outward. If there were magic at work close by, Syaoran's PMS would now be able to at least narrow the area down.

As Syaoran stretched and pulled the web further, making sure that none of thinning strings of magic snapped as he pushed them further away. In under two minutes, the web had now covered an area of almost three miles. Which, to Syaoran, was quite an accomplishment considering how little magic he'd actually put into constructing the magical creation. Syaoran had long learned and accepted that his gift may never surpass the level of a high level Master mage, unlike Sakura and Eriol who're both atleast Arch-mages, in terms of gifts. However, Syaoran had learn to adapt and learn to make a spell as strong as it possibly can by using the most minimal amount of energy to create it.

The magical web now reached its breaking point. It was starting to strain and threatened to snapped apart. However, Syaoran felt just a tickle of magic just outside the rim of the web. It was coming from a stadium about three and a half mile west of where he was standing. It was also shielded behind a magical veil that was meant to keep all the magical energy inside. However, who ever created the veil didn't expect the shield to be detected and didn't take the precaution to make sure that no other magical energy could enter it as well. Which was how, and the _only_ reason, Syaoran had detected it in the first place with such a low magical spell.

_A high Journeyman level mage or a low Wizard level mage,_ Syaoran said to himself as deduced the level of gift for this kind of magic. Whoever was doing this was either rusty with their magics, or was just starting to grow into using their gift. Either way, Syaoran's gift was still stronger, however, just because his gift was stronger doesn't mean that he would be able to easily beat whatever mage was casting the spell, if it came to a mage battle. The most effective mage Syaoran had ever meet was limited only to Journeyman, Wei. Wei was the one who'd taught Syaoran that power isn't truly neccessary, only the effect that you're after is what counts. Power was only there to make things look more flashy and give your edge away to the enemy.

Deciding that the shield was worth investigating, Syaoran started to head towards the direction of the shield. In his mind, Syaoran ran off all of the possibilities of why such a shield would be needed. Everything from a rookie mage simply just playing around with his gifts to a possible veteran mage taking care of a problem. If it was the former, Syaoran was going to have to put a stop to it. Playing around with magic isn't exactly a smart thing to do unless one is in full control of their powers and even then, there are still precautions to take. If it was the latter, Syaoran would only observe to see what was so important that a 'shedding shield' was needed. Which was what the shield as officially named. The proto-shield, the first and original shield created by the castor, would absorb whatever magic was within the shield and using that energy to construct another shield. Once the energy needed is collected, the actual shield sheds away, leaving a new shield that had been newly constructed with the magical energy the first one collected. The process thus then repeat, shedding one shield after another.

Syaoran found himself standing infront of a huge stadium of some sort. The shield was set before him. Using mage sight, Syaoran could see a golden, translucent veil covering a good half of the stadium and stretching all the way up into the sky. Giving Syaoran the impression that whoever set up the 'shedding shield' meant for whatever to go on within the shield to be kept strictly within the shielding. Also, a 'normal' mage who sets any kind of shield for their own purposes usually have a magical signature that tells other mages what they were doing. Since it was hard to actually get magic to lie, since magic is the miracles behind all true things, most of the time, the energy signature would be taken at 'face' value. However, the shield that Syaoran was 'looking' at the moment gave off no signature at all. Which could only mean on thing, whatever was going on inside, was _not_ good.

_Guess I better look into this more,_ Syaoran half groaned, half grinned. Syaoran had needed to blow off some personal steam lately. Tokyo, school work, and his mission was finally starting to take their toll on him and the strain showed in Syaoran's daily activities. His frustration seemed to had tripled since last week, ever since the attack on the park. He'd spent a good portion of the following nights trying to track down whoever it was that had caused the attack. And, like his results with Hotaru, came up with more questions than answers.

As Syaoran marched towards the veil, the bag of food in his arms aspirated away into nothingness. Syaoran's clothes took on a glistening white glow, then melted away in coruscating dust. Syaoran's sudden nakedness was bared only for a split moment after his 'normal' clothes were wist off of him. It took only a thought and an ounce of will to focus his green mage attire onto him. The white interior clothings and the bleached shirt and pants washed onto him upon eddies of swirling mists. Then, his green robe, with the sigil a golden crescent moon smiling crooked before a black circle on the back and insignia of the Li family on the front, faded onto and on top of his bleached wearings.

_Better safe than sorry,_ Syaoran told himself. He had decided to don the traditional lime Master Level Healing Mage robe because if infact there was a corrupted mage within the veil of magic, most likely he was going have to battle with the mage. If it came to that, Syaoran needed more than the simple protection of non-magical clothing. His current attire was fire proof, water proof, and his hat gave him a certain amount of immunity to mind magic. Also, there were a bit of magic sewn into and imbued in the fabric incase Syaoran manage to deplete his own magical reserve.

Syaoran felt a slightly tingling sensation as he stepped through the veil and into the shield. Before Syaoran could start to formulate a plan on what he was going to do, he heard a distant, however magically enhanced, voice shouting, "WORLD SHAKING!" Syaoran felt the the atmospheric preassure drawing and condensing at one point. Also, though Syaoran wasn't a strong Earth mage, he felt ripples and feet massaging tremors past underneath him heading directly into the stadium. Mysteriously the tremors were were somehow rooted out of the ground when it reached the point where the atmospheric pressures were condensing. There was a quick moment of silence as the atmospheric pressure stopped condensing. Then, before Syaoram could react, a loud grinding noise echoed from the stadium, promptly following was a loud gas explosion. Syaoran had heard it enough before to identify it as a gas explosion.

However, there was also a distant humming or some kind that was close by to. In fact, if Syaoran's PMS was telling him right, they were simply only a furlong (A/N: one eighth of an mile; 220 yard or 330 feet) or two away from where he was standing and within the stadium.

  


Sailor Uranus backed up slightly against the wall of the garage panting. She managed to hit one of the bikes with her World Shaking attack. Unfortunately, that had left wide open for a back attack, which one of the bikes happily obliged. No broken bones, but she received a gash on her left thigh which had hindered her in her movements. Which had left wide open for another attack and one of the four remaining bikes had rammed her head on into the chest. Throwing her body back up against the far wall. Normally, she'd used her Space Sword as a final line of defense, unfortunately, her sword was laying uselessly on the other side of the room. Behind the line of motorcycles. With one of her legs incapable of doing anything but being dependant on the other leg, Uranus didn't see how she was going to get out of this one without adding more bodily harm to her body.

She would've tried contacting Michiru or the others for help, but she'd dropped her communicater somewhere. She didn't want to risk leaving herself opened to another attack by throwing another World Shaking. These were by far smarter and A LOT more agile than any enemies she'd faced in the past. For one thing, they were organized. Normally, most of the monsters she'd fought before never thought past the point of stealing the life force of some unsuspecting victim. These bikes, though they were possessed, seemed as if they were herding her like a rancher does to its livestock. Also, for some strange reason, she was feeling extremely drained. Even more so since she had thrown that World Shaking. Uranus knew that it had been a little over a year since she had last became her alter ego, however, she didn't think she _that_ badly out of practice.

_Something is very wrong here,_ Uranus cursed under her breath as she stared at all four bikes as the drew in closer on her. _They're too organized. They're toying with me! They could've finished me off earlier but they didn't. What's going on here?!_ Uranus immediately had to jump to the side then roll back to where she was just standing as two of the bikes charged in a all too synchronized fashion. Unfortunately, the two feats sent stabbings of excrutiating burning pain down the side of her hampered leg. Blinded by the pain, Uranus failed to noticed that one of the other bikes had managed to run up behind her, ramming her from behind. Burning and grinding the hot rubber into the the unprotected back of the senshi. Uranus screamed out in pain as her back suddenly felt as if it caught on fire, which wasn't far off. The bike than flipped her over it and Uranus landed front first flatly against the hard cold ground with a silent thud.

Body throbbing relentlessly in pain, Uranus tried to push herself up off the ground. Only to fall flat down on her face. Her arms felt limp, weak, and useless. It felt as if they were going to fall right off her shoulders and right onto the floor. The odd part was that, she wished they would just do that and stopped aching altogether. Her muscles ached in ways she thought they could never ache while she was a senshi. Her back, oh her back, felt as if someone was continuously pouring sulfuric acid down her back. Her entire left leg was now covered in deltas and streams of drying blood. The gash still burning like an inferno had been set upon her leg. For the first time in a long time, Uranus felt like she wanted to cry.

VRRROOOOOOMM! VVVVRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM! VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

Uranus forced herself to force to look up too see what was going to happen next. The fourth motorcycle was standing just a couple of feet infront of her. Powering up its engine as if it knew that it would scare her and it did. Uranus almost smiled when she realized the irony of it all. Of _all_ the motorcycles, the one before her just happened to be _hers!_ All those hours she had spent caculating and fixing everything on up just to make her bike into the perfect racing machine. Now, she was going to see how well she had did.

As the bike, her bike, took off and bulleted straight at the battered and nearly useless form of Uranus, she bit back a sob. Uranus felt utterly helplessness. She knew that being a senshi would be the end of her eventually, she just never thought it would be so soon. And, as those who had come face to face with a possible death, we all normally think of all the events of our lives. Things we wished we'd done differently. It is at that moment where our lives hang in the balance that we ask the 'what if' questions the most. Uranus was no acception and had no immunity to that rule. She struggled within herself, thinking, wanting to be with her family at the moment as she waited for the end to come.

Only, it didn't come. Or at least, it didn't came to her. Just as the bike came within twenty feet of the senshi of the heavens, it suddenly exploded. Tossing burning metallic sharps in every direction. Then, it was her turn to be surprise a she felt a hand grasp her by the elbow and literally yanked her off the cold ground.

  


Syaoran faultered in his steps as he walked upon the very top of the stadium wall. By now, Syaoran was able to tell that the place was primarily used as a racing field. The tracks were almost barren of all human life, save for a couple of males cleaning up. Nothing Syaoron should be concerned about as he made his way towards several storage houses, where he sensed that most of the magic had radiated. However, getting there was harder than Syaoran had expected. His stomach was going into knots, his teeth rattled and grinded against each other no matter how many times Syaoran had told them to stop. It became so bad that he actually had to fight his own body from simply just turning around and going back the other way. It was as like every part of his body was refusing to go any further than they already were. Forcing down the incredible lump in his throat, mainly to squash the butterflies in his stomach, Syaoran forced himself to leap off the top of the stadium wall, over all the rows of descending stands, and onto the pewter smooth track. From there, Syaoran forced his body into a dead run straight towards the storage buildings. No thoughts, no guess, simply just rushing where his instinct told him.

Syaoran reached the chosen building just in time to hear a blood curdling scream from within the room. Forgetting his inner feelings, by that I mean physical, Syaoran quickly leapt onto an open window that was right above him (don't you just hate all of these convenient openings that seem to make the protagonist so...well protagonist-like?!). As Syaoran's eyes did a quick glance of the slightly dark room, though most of the shadows seem to be illuminated by a roaring fire off to the side, his eyes caught a white dab of color against the shadowing gray of the room. Roaring like some mighty triumphant tiger below him was a white and red striped motorcycle, while three other motorcycle roared in triumph with it.

Syaoran didn't have to have Wei or mother there to tell him react. As the the motorcycle beneath shoot off towards the fallen figure, Syaoran leapt off the sill of the opened window, allowing the his body to soar slightly over and trailing the motorcycle. While keeping eye contact on the metal construct of man, Syaoran, using magic, poured the energy into the air. Targeting the bike with invisible scintilating streams of energy. When he 'felt' that the streams had reached and wrapped themselves around the bike, he called upon the righteous flames of the phoenix. As he prayed the words silently into his mind, he 'saw' the magical bonds around the motorcycle vibrate at a dangerously fast pace. Each _mor'pak_ (kind of like the building blocks of magic; think of it as atoms and molecues are to us.) rushing faster and faster around each other. Swirling, spinning, moving. Until, finally, the inevitable happened.

Syaoran's effort was rewarded when he heard the loud explosion beneath him, which was quickly followed by the loud roar of a starting fire. Syaoran had thrown up his shield to buffer the heat and force of the explosion as he rolled his body in mid-air than speared back down to the ground. As Syaoran silently landed on his feet, almost as easily as if he'd just jumped of a stair step, he made a grab at the fallen figure that was within arms reach of him. He knew the they weren't unconscious, he felt the figure start to protest and decided to simply take matters into his own hands. He was going to get them out of here whether they wanted too or not. Not for the person, but to get away from the sickening feeling that was churning within him.

Taking his chances while the explosion distracted the other bikes, Syaoran tore one of his paper wards from his own sub-space pocket and threw it directly at the closed garaged door. Following quickly behind the rectangular piece of paper, Syaoran hefted one of the stranger's arm over his shoulder and half dragged the figure towards the target of the enchanted ward. As the piece of paper made contact with the door, the ward quickly disappated into the thin sheet of metal. A blink of an eye later, part of the garage door exploded out ward, leaving behind a smog of rising dust and a huge mansize hole on part of the door. Syaoran quickly made a dash for the door as he heard the other bikes behind him regroup.

_I really should consider becoming a fireman or a police officer,_ Syaoran minded to himself. _It's less dangerous and I at least get health benefit._

_Great time to develop a since of humor Li,_ another part of Syaoran's mind emerge as Syaoran stepped through the hole and drag the struggling figure through into the cool warm evening winter air. Behind him, he heard the wheels of the bikes squeal and screech as they came to a quick stop. Though one of them managed to hit the metallic door, causing a loud ring to echo clearly throughout the entire track. _Do you always act this funny or only when you're in the face of danger?_

_Got to concentrate on getting some where safe!_ Syaoran screamed at himself as he continued to half walk, half drag the slumping figure with him.

When the feeling in Syaoran's stomach became a bit more bearable, but not by much, Syaoran eased the figure down onto grassy center of the circle track. In the light of day, Syaoran was able to make a better grasp at the figure's appearance. Syaoran's first reaction was to look away at the scantly dressed lady, who was _obviously_ a woman seeing how her aura was emitting a certain magic only a gifted woman can. Unless she happened to be like Yue and Keroberos, genderless. However, Syaoran didn't feel any male magic pattern in her signature.

A closer look though, and the words "Sailor Senshi" was quickly highlighted in his mind. The moment he'd realized that she was a senshi, the shyness of moral decency washed away and Syaoran simply just stared at the barely conscious lady. Syaoran had come up with a theory a while back about females who use magic to fight against some form of peril against Earth; they must all be scantly dress and leaving little to a pervert's imagination. Sakura was no acception to that rule, seeing as how Tomoyo designed her clothes for her.

The senshi muttered something, however, it was lost within the loud crash behind them as the three remaining bikes finally broke free of their chambers. Syaoran was surprise to have found himself push aside by the senshi as she stood up, rimrod straight, with one of her hand raised into the air. Syaoran was about to question what she was doing when he felt several layers of magical shields formed around senshi. Recognizing and knowing when a large scale spell was about to be initiated, Syaoran quickly put up as many shields as he could around himself.

To Syaoran's surprise, he once again felt the strange and familiar feeling of the surrounding atmospheric pressure condensing and the tremors passing underneath his feet. This time though, he could give it form. The tremors that he had felt pass underneath his feet came together and formed a ring at the base of the senshi's feet. The atmospheric pressure that were condensing came to a point in the open palm of the senshi. The tremors then rose out of the ground, spun up the senshi's body and ringed around the yellow sphere of compressed atmospheric energy. She then threw her creation at the three fast approaching bikes and succeeded in destroying one of them. However, it failed to hinder the efforts of the others.

It also didn't seem good as well, since the senshi almost immediately slumped down to her knees and hand after she threw the destructive attack. _Not good,_ Syaoran cursed as he moved forward to catch the senshi's falling form. _She's too weak to try to throw another without risking losing consciousness. The two bikes were also closing in too._ He had to do something to keep them back until he can come up with a strategy. But what? How can he hold them back if something as strong as what the senshi had just threw at them couldn't stop them. _Damndamndamndamndamn!_ Syaoran bit his lip as he unshealth his sword and stood his ground next to the senshi. _There has to be a way to stop them! Nothing is unstoppable, only unstable. So how can I deal-_ Syaoran's thoughts were quickly silenced as he felt a light winter breeze blow against his large open sleeve, immediately giving him a brainstorm and an idea. _That's it!_

Syaoran pulled out another one of his ward out and threw it into the air. Allowing it to twist lithely before dove back from an arc, straightening itself as if it knew exactly where to go. When it feathered slowly just to where it was infront of him, Syaoran pushed the flat side of his sword foward against the ward, summoning the strong winds of mountain lion's roar. As if pulled by invisible strings, the ward was almost instantly ripped apart when it came in contact with the coldness of the flat. Sending out its own reserve storage of the invisible little _mor'paks_ into the open air infront of it. Forcing them, telling them, ordering the tiny sub-microscopic creatures to clang to whatever warm air there was before it. Finally as the bikes grew dangerously near, Syaoran forced all the warm air infront of him towards the skies, trapping them inside a bubble of colder air and lifting them up, creating a nice thermal draft as he did so. Also, creating a huge empty hole in the air, which, naturally, causes a rush of cold air to enter the empty space that the warm air had once occupied.

  
Uranus watched in awe, and secretly in deep respect, as the green figure beside of her caused an incredible storm scale wind that howled and pushed against the remaining two motorcycles relentlessly. Forcing the bikes back further and further away. She had tried to glimpse at their face earlier, but all she saw, no matter how hard she stare into it, was a blur of pink flesh, brown, and black. Or maybe it was because she was _extremely_ exhausted. Which puzzled her immensely. She had, as Sailor Uranus, fought harder and longer battles than this. So how come she could barely manage to stand on her own two feet?

Grudgingly, Uranus reminded herself to at least make an effort to thank her savior. Even though she couldn't quite see their face. Uranus felt the magic of being the senshi of Uranus healing her wounds, however, they weren't healing fast enough. She also wasn't customed with having to be the one to be rescued. She's usually the one that _does_ the rescuing. The very thought of someone else who was clearly not a senshi and probably not even half as powerful as she is, beating a bunch of motocycles that had brought _her_ to her knees was not a nice reality to dwell upon. This and add the fact that today just wasn't her day, added more to her day's frustration and anger. _Icing for the cake..._ Uranus quoted to herself as she continue to see what the green boy was going to do next.

  


Syaoran grunted as he ended the wind of fury that had managed to blew back the bikes. Now, he just had to find out how to stop them without destroying their link to the castor. _Whoever cast this spell has got to be close by,_ Syaoran growled as he deducted that a spell of this scale and with the incredible accuracy of the bikes can only mean that the castor was also a watcher. Then, since the magical spell had been shielded and grounded to this area, it can only mean that the castor is close by. Very close.

Syaoran couldn't help think that this scenerio was all too familiar. A possessed unanimated item, the sudden lack of human lives, and the possessed item's incredible drive to cause pain upon its victim before they kill it. The second fact helped Syaoran to quickly narrowed his list of all the wizards he knows off that has this kind of power and ability to two people. The first was Eriol, however, Eriol had never taken it to _this_ level of danger and, despite Syaoran's personal feelings towards one of the counterparts of Clow Reed, Eriol was never really evil to begin with. Cruel, abnoxious, irratating, and perhaps slightly insane, but not evil. The second was the mysterious castor he'd ran into at the park a week ago. Syaoran was ready to bet his last yen that it was the latter.

The fallen senshi had gotten to her feet again and seemed as if she was waiting for him to do something. Apparantly, the rumors about the senshis being able to magically heal themselves were true after all. Not that it helped her much during her struggle with the bikes earlier on. By now, Syaoran had managed to deduced that this was probably the senshi of Uranus, Sailor Uranus. Or atleast, he _thought_ so. The Li sources was not without its occasional flaws. _This day can't get any worse,_ Syaoran thought as he moved on to his plan B, which just happened to be, planning what plan C was going to be. Unfortunately, the sound of a loud roaring engine interupted the planning stages of plan C. _It just got worse..._

  
Now _it_ and _its_ brethren where mad! This new one was stronger than the old one. The one that master had told _it_ to attack. The new one had powers that the old one lacked. The new one challenged not only _its_ powers, but the powers of the master as well. _It_ could feel the master's anger and frustration as the master instructed it to kill the new one.

_Will hurt. Fight new one. Hurt new one! Stop new one!_ its brethren roared as it reared up and loudly announced its thought throughout the large roofless garage. _It_ roared in reponse and agreement as well. Together, they will squash the new one and destroy the old one. Together they will avenge their fallen comrades and bring glory to the master! _FOR THE MASTER!_

  


"JUMP!" Syaoran shouted as he shot straight up into the air to avoid the two bikes as they steamrolled over the area right beneath him. Unfortunately, it seems that the senshi thought that Syaoran meant 'jump to the side' and not into the air where the bikes can't reach them. Even though Sailor Uranus was successful in her attempt to dodge one of the bikes, she lost the battle to avoid the second one, which drove itself right into her bruised and aching chest. Knocking all the air out of her already burning lungs and forcing her back to the green grassy field. That is, after she was thrown backwards, covering an distance of fifteen feet where she was last standing.

_Smooth move senshi, real smooth,_ Syaoran thought wryly to himself as watched the senshi below get pummeled upon by the bikes. Shaking his last thoughts out of his head Syaoran surveyed the scene below him. The senshi was poorly handling the situation. She was trying to out power and out match the bike's speed, something she was obviously not succeeding in. Syaoran doubted she really had a lot of battle experience concerning magical contructs nor that she'll last any longer considering the torture she's putting herself in. How the sailor senshi were able to survive this long and became surburban heroines in Tokyo was beyond his grasp. Even Sakura would've handled these bikes by now, or at the very least have the good sense to avoid them.

Taking advantage of his aerial view at the moment, Syaoran quickly switched to his mage sight to see if there were anyway he can stop the bikes without having to waste precious magical energy with a big attack spell. As he 'stared' down at the bikes with his mage sight, the bikes quickly changed to lines of energy and light. Transluscent and outlined by an eerie ghostly blue glow. However, it wasn't the glow that Syaoran had his attention pinned too, it was the myriad and thin streams of glittering energy that Syaoran was looking into. The little organized leylines of energy formed numerous small matrices throughout the bike's entire body. Webbing out and meshing with each other as they were carefully laid throughout the entire frame of the bikes.

_Same spell patterns,_ Syaoran mentally took in as he continued to study the bike, also noticing that his leap had just reached the pivotal peak of its jump, which was almost thirty feet into the air, and that he was starting to descend now. Syaoran also realize that the magical patterns of magical energies also followed a simple beat. Unlike the stone horse, the matrices and spell patterns didn't flux at an almost random rate. _And since whoever's doing all this is controlling more than just one spell, it can't risk having its spells crossing each other! So if I can disrupt the patterns, I can exorcise the magical bonds out of it._

Landing with confidence, Syaoran summoned another one of his wards out of thin air and into his hands. Seeing that the senshi was about to be run over by an incoming bike, Syaoran automatically chose that certain motorcycle to exorcize. Aiming carefully Syaoran threw his right arm, the one that was holding the magical piece of paper, across his body and then back handed the the ward right at the motorcycle.

The ward flew flattly through the air like a board piece. Neither spinning nor stearing from it's direct path to its appointed target. Just as the neared the bike, Syaoran forced a bit of his powers into the enchanted rectangular, piece of paper. Magically forcing the properties of the ward to stretch and grow to nearly a hundred times it's original size. At the same time, Syaoran also used a dash of his magical powers to keep the paper strong and flexible. Making sure that there were no tears or rips that occured during the enlarging process of the ward.

The now large ward continued to approach the motorcycle and when it was less than a few feet from the speeding mechanical monstrousity, the poster size ward continued by wrapping itself around it. Showing no signs of warning, the ward wrapped itself around the entire frame of the bike. Acting very similar to a python's natural reation of wrapping itself around its prey. In the end, the nice golden yellow colored wrappings around the bike caused it to resemble something similar to a badly wrapped christmas present. Forcing the bike itself to fall onto its side.

Several muffled engines roars could be heard emitting from beneath the ward wrappings on the bike. As well as the rapid revolutions of the tires trying to burn off the confines of the fragile paper. Syaoran immediately released the store magical reserve within the ward, throwing in bit of his own as well, and ordered them to attack the matrices and lock points that kept the magical energy to aid possession upon the bike.

Syaoran slapped his hands together and started to pray ernestly in an acient tongue that very few people can understand. Focusing his magical directly into the bike's, meshing his earth green powers with the silvery stored magic of the wards. Then he started to pound and work away the magical shield that had layered itself over the bike. The shield that kept the magic within the its confined area, similar to an exo-skeleton keeping the inner organs in their place.

After drilling a small hole into the shield, Syaoran quickly entered the first leyline that he saw with his magic. Then he allowed it to flow along the magical line of power, like a raft flowing down a river. Until Syaoran reached the web matrice that kept the magical energy of the bikes pulsing through it. Then Syaoran allowed the exorcism to begin. He attacked web. Ordering and commanding his own small fleet of glowing green and silvery _mor'pak_. Mystical, magical energy flowed along several 'threads' of the web and straight to its center. As Syaoran's magic flowed along the leylines and 'threads' of the web, they began to meshed themsevles into the magical linings. Canceling and converting the magical energy. Causing several of the leylines to disappate and disolve into nothingness.

  
Sailor Uranus stared dumbfoundedly as she watch the paper wrapping around the bike begin to glow. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her helper standing rimrod straight, eyes closed, hands together, and silently chanting. At the heels of her helper, the air spun magically with a mysterious blueish-green mist. The mist rised off the ground and into the air, spiraling around her helper's body. Causing the long wide sleeves of their green robe to wave and hoovered in a ghostly fashion that both scared her and awed her.

As the glow of the paper wrappings got stronger so did the roaring protest of the smothered motorcycle subsided. Until it was snuffed out completely and the glowing paper slowly dissolved away. Unveiling a fallen motorcycle laying on its side. Uranus couldn't help having the feeling that something was missing though. That the conclusion of this battle had not end just yet. Despite the fact that the bike was laying on the ground infront of her-

VVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!

_Gods I forgot about about the other bike,_ Sailor Uranus looked up from the fallen bike and saw that the other bike had already given up on her as its target. Unfortunately, it had chosen someone else as its target. Sailor Uranus didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the green garbed fighter/magician didn't quite notice this yet and that they were going to be seriously mangled if she didn't do something to interfere. But what, what could she do? Her space sword was too far to retrieve in time, summoning a world shaking wouldn't do. What should she do?

_Try SOMETHING!_ her mind screamed at her. Mind you, Sailor Uranus doesn't enjoy being rescue. In fact, she loath it. She always hated stories where some nitwit princess got rescued and carried off into the sunset by some prince. Preferable, she'd rather be the prince and do the rescuing. But she knew the basics of being in debt and repaying them. The mask magician, her nick name for the mysterious figure, had helped her out earlier and now it was her turn to help them.

Drawing from her sense of honor and remaining reserve, Uranus summoned every bit of energy she could find within herself. Griting her teeth, Uranus forced the power into the palm of her hands. Sub-consiously and unknowingly, she also drew in the atmospheric preassure as well. Causing them to spiral downward into the palm of her hands and reformed into the shape of a glowing gold ball of energy. Then, with all her strength and will power, Sailor Uranus aimed and launch the rotating ball of energy at the assumed target.

"URANUS SPACE TURBULENCE!" shouted Sailor Uranus as she blast away a river of energy that twisted and turned erradically as it flew towards the bike. Sailor Uranus had the pleasure of seeing her Space Turbulence slammed into the motorcyle meters away from the Mask Magician, causing a loud deafening explosion to follow shortly just before she passed out. _Never mess with me..._

  
_It_ flew back against the wall. _It_ couldn't believe it! The other one, the green garbed one, had exoricised _its_ own control out of the motor cycles. The green garbed was stronger than they look. It may even pose more of a threat than the senshi ever could. The senshi were powerful, they were strong, they were many. But the green garbed, they were resilent, they were resourceful, they were knowledgable, and able to use their powers wisely. Unlike the senshi who seemed to throw off magical attacks like water.

_It_ got up from the magical back lash that it had received from the green garbed one. _It_ had noticed when one of _its_ creations were being tampered with. _It_ had realized who was trying to tamper with its creation. _It_ had ordered the remaining contraption to attack the interloper, however, _it_ had not expect to be attacked by the senshi so quickly and so powerfully. Due to that, _it_ was not ready to block the magical surge that had traveled up its link from _its_ creation that was being exorcised because it had put up a block to the link that had been destroyed.

"I must retreat!" _it_ shouted at the damn Crystal. "It is too dangerous for both of us at the moment. We must retreat for now and plan our next move."

However, the Crystal hummed back in protest. It had not quinched its thirst for power in the last battle, this time, it wanted to finish what it had started. The senshi was now unconscious and still in transformation. This was the perfect opportunity to gain more power for itself. And it will not have no mere magical construct tell it what to do and what not to do.

"Damn fool," _it_ swore under _its_ breath. "Do you think you can handle them both at once?! You're not even at full power! They'll tear us apart and have our remains for dinner! We must retreat! NOW!"

Before the Crystal can respond to its companion's sudden outburst there was a sudden kick at the door. Followed by another, than another, than another. Until finally, the door burst opened to reveal a short figure armed with a sword.

  
Syaoran was pushed off his feet as an ear ringing explosion happened to raised hell only a few feet from where he was standing. Syaoran had been in the processed of tracing the link back to the castor, hoping to 'silently' sneak a surprise attack and hopefully finish all this once and for all. He nearly succeeded in this act as well. He had traced the link up to the location where the castor was hidden, the annoncers' box, and was about to initiate a 'Fire Mind' spell when the explosion knocked him off his feet. Caught off guard, Syaoran accidentally sent more into his attack than he meant. So rather than giving the castor small undetectable doses of a 'Fire Mind' curse, he threw one huge one into it. Though he knew it probably didn't do anything but gave them a mental back lash.

_Damn it!_ Syaoran growled as he stared to make his way up to the announcers' box. Pretty much totally ignoring the fact that the senshi had collapsed. Syaoran's main thought at the moment was to stop whoever was causing all this trouble. Today had been too close for comfort. Not that this wasn't the first time he'd walk the edge of death, but he'd prefer not to do it if he didn't have too. _Almost had them._

Leaping off from the tracks onto the stand with incredible agility and perhaps a bit of aid from magic, Syaoran continued to hop up the stories of stands and head for the announcers' box. It wasn't as easy as Syaoran had anticipated though. As Syaoran neared the announcers' box, that same sick feeling started to return to him. The closer he got to the announcers' box, the worse off his stomach started to feel and the more his legs started to protest. Syaoran once again found himself forcing himself to move closer to his appointed goal and fought down both the feeling of feverish nausea and the need to simply turn around and run away.

It took most, if not all, of Syaoran's will power to force his body up to the announcers' box. When he finally reached his target, the feelings were folded ten times and Syaoran automatically took three steps back unknowingly. _Hang...in there...LI!_ Syaoran growled at himself as he summoned his sword and started to kick the door of the announcers' box. The first two time was actually difficult because Syaoran's foot would rather run away than cooperate. The third time was easier, but it lacked the strength of the first two kick because Syaoran had immediately switched legs. The fourth time, Syaoran decided that he'd had enough of his legs protesting and threw his entire weight and strength into it.

Syaoran was reward by a loud air snapping crack as the door finally gave and flew open. Leaping in sword held in his hands, teeth baring, and ready for a fight, Syaoran wasn't quite prepare to the sight that he was quickly treated too. Though the frame of the figure didn't change, nor did the same dark complexion, Syaoran was surprise to see who his enemy was. Or to put it more literally; to see who his enemy resembled.

_Yue?!_ was Syaoran's first thought was he stared at the figure. The same cat-like elegant features. Same height and feminine male beauty. The face, the face was the same face that Syaoran had once dreamed of kissing and caressing so many times in the past. However, when Syaoran took a closer look and overlayered the image of the moon guardian on top of the figure that stood before him, Syaoran's thoughts trailed in another direction. _No not Yue!_

Where Yue's eyes were a silver blue, this one's was a cold black with white slits in them. Where Yue's wintery silver hair cascaded straight down to the ground, this one's was black and wavey and fell only down to mid-back. Yue donned the white formal ball suit given and designed by Clow Reed. This one wore tight dark clothing coated by a long trench coat that outlined the figure's slime frame. Whoever this person was, he took a strong resemblence to moon guardian, but was obviously not.

  


Sailor Uranus struggled to her feet as she started to detransformed back to her alter ego. Despite the sensible protest that she needed to stay in senshi form if she was to be properly healed. It couldn't be helped though, since Sailor Uranus had trouble keeping her own consciousness present. She couldn't afford to for somebody to stumble upon her unconscious and pratically defenseless. Also, she wasn't one hundred percent certain that her glamour field was going to hold out much longer, seeing how her powers were being stretched to their limit at the moment to keep her conscious.

A moment later, Te'nou Haruka stood, or rather slotched heavily, were Sailor Uranus had stood. Her clothing had remained undamaged, thank the kamis, and hid most of her worse injuries. Especially her back, shoulders, arms, and legs. There was a small scratch on her forehead, but it didn't really hurt. Much that is, compared to the burning throbs of the others.

Haruka forced her body to move towards one of the main exits of the stadium, praying that she at least had the strength to make it to her car and drive home. She managed to limp, using the word 'limping' loosely, and half crawled her way off the track field. A bit of blood from the cut on her left thigh had managed to seep through her pants. Wetting it and coloring the dark green and black strips a dark muddy brown.

However, as Haruka continued to trudge on, her body immediately stopped moving and her knees became useless. Following her sudden physical shut down was the overwhelming feeling of sick nausea and extreme fatigue. Her mind quickly fogged over and her chest constricted. Haruka felt as if she'd just ran a marathon. She felt certain muscles cramp and joints popping. Those muscles that did not cramp suddenly felt pulled. Fortunately for Haruka though, her world quickly became black before the force of her exhausted muscles claimed her.

Also, though it might have been the fatigue, Haruka could've sworn she heard a distant scream right before the fadding darkness fully claimed her mind.

  


_It_ took notice of the attacker's sudden pause and decided to take advantage of it. Drawing upon the stored energy from the Dark Crystal, _it_ formed a ball of pulsing red energy in its hands. Wrapping and tying the cords of power carefully together so that they do not touch eachother as they cross. It wouldn't do to have them explode in his hands. That was the secret behind energy attacks. The trick is not to hit your target with it, but to hit your target and cause all the crossing cords of energy to push against each other and release a chain reaction that would lead to the energy's release. Often in the form of an explosion.

When _it_ felt that ball of pink energy blink into his life in his hands, pulsing with explosive potential, _it_ launched it at the would be attacker.

Syaoran was caught off guard, again for the second time that day, as the figure launched some kind of energy attack at him. Acting upon instinct and experience, Syaoran leapt backwards through the door way and errected a shield around him. Though the shield was not as strong as it could've been, and had Syaoran simply stood his ground with such a weak shield as his only defense he would've been greatly injured. Fortunately, however, since Syaoran leapt bakwards, going along with the direction of the attack, Syaoran only got the wind knocked out of him when the energy ball slammed into and exploded against his errected shield. Syaoran's shield immediately shattered like cheap glass against the force of the explsion.

Unfortunately though, some force of the magical explosion when unbuffered and traveled on. Slamming right into Syaoran as if someone had just swung several baseball bats simultaneously against his entire body. Throwing him back further than what he'd expected. Crash landing and rolling backwards along with the force of the blow to aviod further injury, Syaoran decided on the most simplest and most often used counter-attack. As Syaoran rolled back into a kneeling position he pulled and grasp a handful of wards into both hands and threw them straight at the direction of the announcers' box. Blindly hoping that one of them would have the desire effect that Syaoran was going for.

  
_It_ had to leave immediately. _It_ had managed to stop the attacker from the being, however, _it_ knew that now is not the time and place for such things. First things first, and then he'll take care of the thorns after he'd gotten out of the bushes.

_It_ called upon more energy from the Dark Crystal and tore a mansized hole in the air infront of him. A gate, a means to transportation by using a portal. _It_ was quite surprise he was able to pull it off, since he thought that the crystal didn't have this kind of power yet. However, this may have probably used up a tremendous amount of reserve the the Dark Crystal may have accumulated. But _it_ was desperate to escape. They could not be caught nor stop. Not yet. Not until they both had their revenge.

"Ready," _it_ said as _it_ called the Crystal over and stepped through the gate. _It_ smiled at _its_ escape as it made its way to the other side of the gate. However, victory was not without its price. And as _it_ nearly, fully entered the gate, _it_ felt something stabbed right into the back of _its_ left shoulder.

"AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!" _It_ screamed as it stepped through the gate. Sensibly, it was the only word _it_ could think off to express the shearing pain that ran throughout _its_ body.

  


Syaoran struggled to balance himself as he stood, ignoring the flat pain that was throbbing up and down his entire front side.

_He got away,_ Syaoran seethed as picked his dropped sword and used it to help balance himself. Syaoran didn't need to check the announcers' box. He could see right through the large hole that was caused by the explosion. Not to mention the undeniable traces of a gate being opened. The magic within the surrounding areas had badly distorted. The mysterious figure had bend time and space itself to create the gate, also doing so without the proper shieldings. Causing both magical energy around the present area and the magical energy from the area where the figure had gated to to leak into each other's surroundings.

_Great,_ Syaoran thought as he quickly did the 'math' up in his head. The elements of the area were left unbalanced and unfix. Especially with the the gate. With the loose wild magical energy in the air as well, it was going to effect the forces of nature in the surrounding area. Quite frankly the weather. At the very least, there's going to be a rain storm over this area of Tokyo tonight. This was a down side to not having the powers of the Clow/Sakura cards. The cards tended to act automatically, setting up their own shields and balance to the magical energy around them. Magic, old acient magic, the kind of which that Syaoran wields, had to be done manually, unless someone with born with an enormous amont of power to do so unconsciously. _Just great!_

Pushing down the feelings of anger and disgust within himself, Syaoran started to make his way back down to the field of the track. The well-being of the senshi finally returning to his mind. Off course, Syaoran also made plans for 'healing' the magical energy of the area as well. That was part of the job of being both a Master level mage and a Healing mage. Thus the title, Master Level Healing Mage, the fourth step on a Master level magician of a five step scale to reach the level of Arch-mage. To be able to manipulate the dimensions and store enormous amounts of magical powers into objects refered to as Mana batteries. Such as the Clow/Sakura cards for example.

When Syaoran arrived onto the track, two things immediately popped into his mind. One, the senshi had took off. The second, the track looked as if it had seen better days. Infact, it looked as if had two or three bon fires made right onto the field. Sailor Uranus's World Shaking also dug up and erroded parts of the field. Creating small ditches that dragged themselves almost across the entire track field. The air was mix of gas fire and burning grass. Smoke filled air scratched the eyes and itched the nose.

_This is not going to bode well with the public,_ Syaoran thought calmly to himself as he walked through the fiery mess. As Syaoran reached the other end of the field, a fallen figure caught his eyes. They were dressed in a brown blazer and green pants. Laying on the smooth concrete just before one of the exits tunnels of the stadium. Deciding to take a closer look at the fallen character, Syaoran started to cross the track and made his way over to the exit tunnel.

_Must've tried to get away when all the chaos started,_ Syaoran thought. However, if that was the case, how come he didn't see them earlier? They weren't really all that far from the storage/garage that the motorcycles had been in. So he should've seen something. _I know I'm not that rusty._

Kneeling down beside the figure, Syaoran turned them over and was greeted by the unconscious face of a woman. Either that or a very attractive man, however, being around Yue and Rubymoon, Syaoran came to develop a second sense for descerning genders at first glance. Her pulse was slow, but she was as live at least. Syaoran was about to check to see if she had any other injuries, such as the one she had on her forehead, when a voice snuck from behind him.

  
Kinomoto Touya had just finish showering and dressing after his day at the tracks. Today had been an uneventful day, as his usual days had been lately. There had been that thing with the Magic Hunters a few months back, but him and Yue were able to take care of it. Of course, it was still a bit awkward talking with the Moon guardian, even after all this time. Yue wasn't as conversive as Yukito nor did he choose to be as social. Infact, the Moon guardian was practically the opposite of Yukito. Yue hardly even answer any of Touya's question when he asked, it seemed that the only person who can get a straight answer out of Yue was Sakura. Even then, Sakura was going to have to dig extremely deep just to get the answer.

As Touya exit out of the dress area of his storage, his thought ran over the events of the day. First, there had been an easy breakfast with Yukito, then he straight to the tracks and just rode the bike away. Not very interesting really. Well, there was that race with Te'nou, but that wasn't really anything important. Touya couldn't help but smile at the handsome, short hair blond. Now tha Touya had thought about it, he really didn't mean to embarass her like he did. Infact, he was actually trying to get on her good side really.

But all hope of that seemed to have drowned when he beat her in that race. All in all, she really was a fast runner. Faster than most really. Had Touya had not spent a majority of life since the age of five playing soccer and doing track, he would've never stood a chance. Also, as he dad once told him, that if you have to compete, you must always do your best as to not show disrespect to your opponent. Touya could've just easily let Te'nou win, but then, that wouldn't be right. He knew that Te'nou challenged him into a foot race out of hurt pride and ego. But if he'd let her won, it wouldn't really prove that she was a faster runner, only that he had felt sorry for her. And she didn't seem like the type that would accept an easy win or pity.

_That crazy lady,_ Touya sighed as he walked out the storage/garage and out onto the track. _She really...should...WHAT THE HELL!?_

Indeed those would've been the perfect words for the moment as Touya was introduce to a smoke filled air and several burning bon fires on the track's inner green field. "What the hell happen out here?!"

At times like these, though they were rare in his life, Touya really wished he still had his powers. Not that he regreted giving them away to save his consort and friend, as well as saving the Moon guardian, however it would come in handy in times like these. He had to admit, he still felt handicap without his powers even after three years. He missed his conversations with his mother. He even missed the times when he would wake up in the middle of the nights, screaming because he sense something wrong in the air. Even though he hated those nights, it still gave him a sense of security that he knew when he was in danger.

Looking at the area in shock awe, Touya's eyes caught a flash of green at the corner of his eyes. Turning his head to look at the splash of color, he noticed that it was a person. A person perched over someone else, someone who seemed to be unconscious. Touya's protective instincts quickly kicked and he started to make his way over to the two figures. Ideas of tactics on how to approach the two figure correctly. How to scare one of them off incase it was a mugger? For that first thought, Touya was balling his hands into a fist and getting himself ready to fight, if neccessary. Or how to handle the situation if it was a practicaly joke? How to handle the situation if he walked into an...intimate situation?

As he neared the two, Touya's eyes ran across the green cloth that one of the two figures donned and something in the back of his mind clicked on. _I know that insignia,_ Touya thought to himself as he approached the situation with a little less hostility. Of course, thoughts such as, _What the hell is _he_ doing here?_ and _What's going to happen now!?_ ran through his head. When he realized who the other figure was that they were unconscious, Touya had to fight down the urge to grab _the kid_ by his collar, yank him of the ground, and shake the living daylights out of _the kid._ Which wasn't so different from Touya's first meeting with _the kid_. His first meeting with _the kid_ wasn't exactly an ideal start for a friendship, nor was it something one likes to dwell upon. But his 'platonic' feelings towards the kids had changed over the years. Which was probably why Touya said what he said next.

  
"Did you really have to knock her out," came a familiar flat baritone voice from behind Syaoran. "You know, if you really wanted me to win, you could've just cheered for me you know?"

Syaoran's back stiffen a little as his mind registered and recognize who the voice belonged too. Not that he wasn't expecting to run into them eventually, however, he really just didn't expect to meet them so soon. Now that he did, he was half expecting them to yank him off the ground and repeat their first meeting all over again. However, when the yanking didn't happen, Syaoran decided that it was safe to relax. Though he kept him guard up incase he needed to 'restrain' the elder Kinomoto child from trying to hurt him.

"Kinomoto," Syaoran solemnly replied to Touya's poor attempt at a joke.

"Kid," Touya replied back just as solemnly. Glancing down at the unconscious body of Te'nou and then back to the field again, Touya added up the facts in his head and frown. Putting two and two together, Touya decided to leave it alone and probably consult Yue later tonight. Even though he doubted he would get a straight answer out of the Moon guardian, however, at least Yue would respond to his questions. Knowing Syaoran, or at least from Touya's persepective, at best he would only get silence.

_Great,_ Syaoran thought to himself as he started to get up from the body. Syaoran didn't really trust to be this close to the Card mistress's older sibling without the Card mistress present. _I don't need this at the moment! I need some time to think all this through!_

Agreeing to decide that he should leave before his mind explode at him with more questions than he had at the moment, Syaoran made his exit through the exit tunnel of the stadium. Stopping only to say, "She should be okay," as he continued to walk into the stadium. When Syaoran was sure that he was out of Touya's sight, he quickly transformed back into his street clothes. So that by the time he left the stadium, he was carrying a paperbag of grocery and trying to find the correct bus stop all over again.

Making his way away from the stadium Syaoran's sighed a deep, long, and heavy sigh as he thought of his day's event. Running out food, getting lost, fight possessed motorcycle with a senshi, fighting a wizard and nearly getting himself killed. Then running into a mutual acquaintace, one that he'd rather not have ran into again if he could've helped. Expectedly the only thing that ran through Syaoran's mind was a single sentence, _This just can't be happening to me...._

  
-----------The outer's home-----------

"This can't be happening to me..." Haruka muttered as she cleaned her cuts with some evil, skin stinging cream. Haruka had woken up and found herself at the care of none other than Kinomoto Touya. Despite the protest, the idiot had insisted that he drive her home. "I hate this...OUCH!"

The last word was a compliment of Haruka puting the cream on the gash she recieved on her left thigh. The injuries had not change since she last remembered them. Only now, they felt even worse due to the evil cream she was spreading over them. Stinging and biting her at her injuries in second. When they didn't feel like they were attacking her injuries, they were burning them.

Haruka was so busy with her work that she didn't realize that her two housemates had return. Michiru and Hotaru had just gotten back from an afternoon of shopping for Hotaru's upcoming class trip and meeting with the inners. So, as most female who'd just got back from shopping, the two were delighted with coming home and were about ready to just sit back for a few moments to joke about their day. That is, until Michiru insisted that they should go up stairs and put their new clothes away and maybe washup a little. Of course, being the good girl that she is, Hotaru insisted to bring both her's and her adopted mother's clothing to their room while Michiru uses the restroom to clean herself up first.

When Hotaru opened up the door to her adopted parents room, she was treated to a horrid sight. Dropping the two bags of newly bought clothes in her hands, Hotaru's eyes quickly filled with tears as she looked at her adopted parent's scarred and beaten body. Her mouth dropped opened and her eyes widened. There, sitting upon the bed in nothing but a braw and panties was Haruka. A Haruka whose entire left thigh was red with dry blood. Whose middle back was a mix black and red with a hint of badly burnt flesh. Her arms cut and bruised in several MANY places that it seemed as if Haruka had ran her arm through a grinder. Her stomach and chest area cut, bruised to a tender purple, and slightly burn.

Before Haruka even realized that Hotaru was in the room, much less guess that she was in the house, an ear piercing, heart stopping, fear filled, "Haruka!" escaped from Hotaru's mouth.

Living move over because the dead is waking up. Haruka nearly jumped three into the air at hearing Hotaru's voice and an extra thirteen feet with the volume of her voice. Michiru quickly showed up at the door to see what was wrong and followed Hotaru's example when she saw her lover's injuries.

"Definitely not my day," Haruka muttered as her two housemates began to bombard her with questions. Outside, in the dying daylight, the clouds began to darken and in the distance, a hint of thunder hummed proudly through the air. Even though the weather reports had said that there was to be no rain that night, nor any other night for the next seven days.

  


Trying to ignore the downpour of droplets against his face, Syaoran carefully l leap off the top of a sixteen story glass building and straight down onto the top of a much shorter building. Landing with a quiet splat, Syaoran quickly recovered from the suicidal jump and started to rush to the edge of the building. Preparing himself for another leap to another building that was apparently taller than the one he was just on. _Why do I do this anyway,_ Syaoran growled as he shot straight up like a string arrowed to the top of the building. Trying to push away the freezing wetness of the rain to the bottom of his mind. _No one, good or evil, is dumb enough to be out on a night like this? Only an idiot would think about running around in the rain on a night like this._

_Guess that makes you the idiot doesn't is,_ another part of his mind replied. Syaoran gave himself a mental thump as he carefully gripped the slippery edge of the building and pulled himself onto its top. Pausing for a moment to blink away the wet bluriness from his eyes. Syaoran didn't dare use magic to keep the water out of his eyes tonight, not unless he was willing to be struck by thunder or lightening. If this storm had been a natural occurance, he'd have no trouble with using such a spell. However, since this storm's origins were magic base, the hazard of using magic were heighten greatly. Though Syaoran could just have easily shielded himself from a lightening bolt, such a protection would cause him to be easily detected by anyone with the ability to seek out magical energy within the area.

When Syaoran's vision was corrected, he started of again. Or was about too, when a splash of white erupted right infront of him.

"Greetings Descendent of Clow Reed," came familair voice, for the second time that day.

Syaoran, quickly composing himself, looked up at the face of the suddenly flash of white and scowl in recognition. "Yue..."

  
-----------End of Chapter five-----------------

Sorry this took so long for me to get done. I've been working on a whole new fic that was sent to me by a challenge. Apparently someone is daring me to do a Syaoran match up with another Clamp character. Being the swell guy that I am, I took them up on the offer. Of course, I couldn't find someone who was in par with Hotaru or Sakura, so I ask my friends for suggestion. The person they picked was...(drum roll please)...None other than X character Yuzariha! I know I know, stop it with the anti-Syaoran and Sakura thing, but don't worry, I really don't plan to post it. Its just a fun thing to do on the side. I'm also working a Ranma/Smallville crossover at the moment too.

Also, I had been working with a little christas chapter for this fic as well, but it just didn't come out right. That was way I didn't update in quite a while. I'm still debating of inputing Touya and Yukito for further use in the story though. Someone suggested that I add a little Haruka and Touya pair up as well as a Yukito and Michiru match up. I already like the couples just the way they are, but maybe I might just throw in some outward show of emotions just for fun. I'm also debating on whethered or not I'm going to have Chibi-Usa later on in the story as well. For those Setsuna lovers out there, she will come into the story eventually, but she probably won't play that big of a roll. I know this chapter lack some serious interaction between Hotaru and Syaoran, but that was why I was working on the Chirstmas chapter for. Too bad it didn't work out so good, I may post it, even though it won't be as good as it should've had I post it during Christmas. I promise that the next chapter will have a bit more interaction between the two.

Someone asked me why I'm doing a fic like this (okay A LOT of people asked me that). Well, one of the reason is I wanted to experiment. I got bored of all the mushy mush S&S. Personally, I don't like to read a lot of high sugar fics. And also ALL of the S&S fic had been done to death. The other, and this is one of my pet peeves, is that I hate fics where Sakura is partnered up with Yue or other people. Not that I hate those match ups, only the one where the authors makes Syaoran into a complete insensitve jerk! I know the kid is a loner but he's got some morals! So in short, THIS IS MY REVENGE FIC FOR ALL THOSE EVIL-SYAORAN MAKERS OUT THERE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-cough cough-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahem, anyway, I got to go. Ja ne

Oh yeah, for that person who e-mailed me an flamed me on why I would match Syaoran up with such a 'slut' like Hotaru, who goes into battle wearing pratically next to nothing, I got something to say to you, if you're reading this. If Hotaru is considered a slut because she fights in her senshi outfit, then Sakura would be consider more of a slut (I'M NOT CALLING SAKURA A SLUT THIS IS JUST SETTING AN EXAMPLE! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!) than Hotaru because Hotaru has not other choice than to transform into such a revealing costume. Sakura, on the other, normally and willingly dress up in numerous revealing outfits everytime she goes out cardcaptoring. Okay, not EVERYTIME, but you get my gist. Moral: Don't call Hotaru a slut because her life is hard enough as it is and if you hate this fic, flame the author not the characters!

R&R or e-mail me at LPS_2@yahoo.com


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